24/06/26 - Frogmore Creek

Escaping the Heatwave, Evading the Pub

A walk from "Best Pubs in South Devon" holds plenty of promise.

Yet compromises need to be made. We are on day 2 of the heatwave that has had the news outlets reaching for ever darker crayons. Mrs M wants us up and out early - 6am was mentioned - and on the shortest walk I have for the area. I'm up for the early start. England vs. Ghana last night provided no reason to stay up celebrating.

The Globe at Frogmore will have to wait. With opening hours of 3pm - 11pm midweek, it was always going to be a tall order to get the tick. 

Heating up at 7:18am

It's a beautiful ramble. Frogmore Creek is a drowned river valley in the Kingsbury Estuary. The village at the head was once a thriving port and the pub served the working community. Low tide when we drop down to access it. Occasional views along its length to Salcombe.

First glimpse

Salcombe in the far distance

Fields take us to West Charleton - where the Charleton Inn awaits those in cooler climes - before a delightful green lane in the sheep hills drops us back to the start.

In car - the temperature is 24 degrees. And we haven't even had breakfast.

Ziggy the hot dog looking forward to his sardine brunch

Views from the green lanes above Frogmore Creek

Walk Details

Distance - 5 miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in South Devon 

12/05/26 - A Wiltshire Way Day 4 - Amesbury to Salisbury

Ancient Monuments, Gratis

The first half of A Wiltshire Way comes to an end in Salisbury. A city that makes the remote plodding and below average pub scene worth the effort.

Today, it's an easy walk and with the twin highlights of Stonehenge and Old Sarum - real highlights. Both are paid for tourist attractions but both can be experienced gratis.

Stonehenge especially so - approach from the Avenue and you find yourself on the other side of a low fence, where the patrons have paid £30. I'm up there with Martin Lewis for money saving techniques.

Come over here and save yourself £120

Geocaching trail and fine walking through Wilsford Cum Lake (make your own jokes) and refreshment found in the unlikely place of Great Bustard. From a distance, I thought it meant Boris Johnson. A posh eponymous gastro-pub, where people feel it acceptable to hold job interviews in public. I groaned at some of the answers and saw through her bull at some of her answers. The interviewer was a goon too.... often answering his own questions. By the time I had finished my Hop Back Summer Lightning, he had given himself the job.

A literal barn of a pub - the sign is more interesting

Every step getting me closer and closer to my goal - through fields of blue wildflowers until eventually, Old Sarum comes into view. An impressive hill fort, abandoned town with a castle and cathedral. The forerunner to Salisbury.

The track to Old Sarum

The ramparts - Google aerial views for the dramatic views of the Cathedral footings

And there lies Salisbury - endless history, a delightful Cathedral court and 6 Good Beer Guide ticks to attack.

It's taken me four days to get here. I fully intend to kick the arse out of it.

A spire to inspire Russian tourists with exact measurements

Walk Details

Distance - 13.5 miles

Geocaches - 56

Previous Stages on "A Wiltshire Way" - Day 1 - Swindon to Marlborough, Day 2 - Marlborough to Pewsey, Day 3 - Pewsey to Amesbury

11/05/26 - A Wiltshire Way - Day 3 - Pewsey to Amesbury

Horse, What Horse?

Pewsey was ticked off - pubs with odd opening hours, Chinese and Indian Takeaways but what it is most famous for is its White Horse.

Pewsey White Horse is one of the lesser-known chalk hill figures of southern England, cut into the steep southern slope of Pewsey Hill above the village of Pewsey in Wiltshire. Unlike many of the older white horses, it is relatively modern — created in 1937 to commemorate the coronation of King George VI.

I can see on the map that it's on the imaginatively named Pewsey Hill - which my route to Amesbury is taking me straight up. Somehow, I fail to spot it.

Pewsey Hill - The horse may be the other side of the hedge

This kind of sets the tone for the day's walking. I am on Salisbury Plain - the views are amazing. Amazingly empty. My path runs for as far as the eye can see. There's not even the frisson of being shot at or run over by a tank.

Where to stop on today's walk?

No tanks

I pick up the River Avon valley and a collection of very odd military towns. The barracks look more like a Prisoner of War camp. Hard to tell whether the barbed wire is to stop me getting in or to stop the soldiers getting out. Nothing of interest in Haxton, Netheravon, Figheldean or Ablington.

Thank the Lord for Durrington, with its Sainsbury's Local and Big Blue Cup of Joy.

The Stonehenge Inn

A pub so bad, it almost comes back around the other side of a rating system. I'm unsure what was the most naff - I suppose I would have enjoyed a double-decker bus play area in the garden as a kid. I don't think anyone appreciated the plastic menhirs guarding the entrance door. And the miniature Stonehenge summons inevitable memories of This Is Spinal Tap — one suspects the druids may soon be demanding it be built eighteen inches higher.

Gotta laugh

Face tells a different story

I'll save the rest of my review for pubsgalore.com.

Nearly in Amesbury, I am saving the real Stonehenge for tomorrow. My ancient monument today is Woodhenge - although I am unsure as to what I am looking at.

At least this is free to enter

Amesbury is full of history, with plenty to investigate. The pub scene is a little limited and hardly worth reporting.

The George is my digs for tonight and was good enough for General Fairfax to base his headquarters in the English Civil War. It is an excellent, value for money hotel and my most extravagant stay of the trip. The hotel bar did not look like it would provide much entertainment. 

Bunting

The Kings Arms was a morose, cask-less pub that may have shown the football later but I couldn't bring myself to return. Surprisingly, I saw an Australian order two pints of Fosters.

Sad Times at the Kings Arms

The Bell is an unexpected Wetherspoons for a town of this size. Due to their famous pricing system, it was the only busy pub in town. A druid in a high-visibility jacket holding court and banging his staff for emphasis on his punchlines. The beer - Stonehenge Brewery - in perfect condition. 

Ding Dong - Decent Beer - People

Finally, The New Inn. A foodie pub, again lacking atmosphere and the only drink I had to return. A rancid half of London Pride that smelled and tasted badly of vinegar. Why barmen have to "check the barrel" when they could just sniff it, I will never know. He concurred the barrel was nearing empty but it should never have got to this point. How will we ever get Australians off Fosters?

New Inn, Old Beer

Walk Details

Distance - 15.5 miles

Geocaches - 36

Previous Stages on "A Wiltshire Way" - Day 1 - Swindon to Marlborough, Day 2 - Marlborough to Pewsey

10/05/26 - A Wilstshire Way Day 2 - Marlborough to Pewsey

Man on a Deadline

Wiltshire has provided a new experience. I don't think a walk plotted on a map has so spectacularly failed to deliver in execution.

There are two very distinct walking areas for today's indirect route between Marlborough and Pewsey.

Savernake Forest is one of Southern England's oldest surviving forests. A harder look at the OS Map would have revealed the unnatural man-made tracks. Arrow straight, loose stone rides - shared with the  occasional vehicle spewing up dust - did not make for a pleasant morning. DPD were trying to set a time record for a full traverse. 

The map, more interesting than reality.

One part of the forest that DPD aren't allowed to drive

The village of Great Bedwyn offered potential refreshment but I was too early for the Three Tuns and the post office was closed on a Sunday. A first potential hazard encountered - a bull in field. Thankfully, he was distracted by a magpie in the churchyard.

Handsome beast

In an improvement on yesterday, I did find somewhere to lunch. The Swan at Wilton, a busy dining pub, where beer of the week, Ramsbury Gold, was once again found.

An admittedly poor photograph

And it was a good job I stopped here.

The afternoon's walking was along the Kennet and Avon Canal. I am from the West Midlands, from a town that solely exists because of the canal. You cannot walk for more than a couple of miles without stumbling on a pub or cafe. Not in Wiltshire. 

7 miles, where the only thing of "interest" was the Bruce Tunnel. And you have to leave the towpath to get through that.

It will be a while before my next canal walk

I met a trio of drinkers in Marlborough last night who told me that I should not miss the Shed Alehouse in Pewsey. Knowing how limited entertainment options in the town are, I was determined to take their advice. It closes at 4:30pm on a Sunday.

So the relentless canal plod was executed against a ticking stopwatch. It provided the motivation required. I was there at 4pm.

Taken after 4:30

What an odd place - the front drinking parlour is bolted onto a terraced house, containing maybe three tables. Packed solid. My 70l Osprey left on the street. To be honest, if it had been nicked, I would not have been too bothered.  Tube rules about giving your seat up to those more in need are unobserved. I'm the only mug who has traipsed 19 miles to get here.

By pint two, a gap had opened up and I was able to generate conversation with the old classic "where is best to eat in Pewsey". Always good for debate, even if the answer is not ofyen a Chinese on a bench.

There are three other pubs in town - although the Royal Oak had seemingly given up. It was open on arrival but firmly bolted before the chow mein had been ordered.

Moonrakers was where everyone in the Shed absconded to after 4:30pm. After B and B check-in (they don't do breakfast, so probably should call it a B) - I made it in time to get involved in a pub wide debate about VAR and whether West Ham's equaliser against Arsenal should have stood. Five days later and I am still undecided. Which shows why VAR needs to get in the bin. 

Wait till you see the roundabouts in Pewsey

Finally, after 33 miles of walking, I get my first Good Beer Guide Tick of the trip at The Coopers Arms. A delightful, thatched pub on the village outskirts. 

More like it

Ossett White Rat in perfect condition. If you want to get in the Bible, sell beer from Yorkshire.

Walk Details

Distance - 19 Miles

Geocaches - 4

Previous Stages on "A Wiltshire Way" - Day 1 - Swindon to Marlborough  

09/05/26 - A Wiltshire Way Day 1 - Swindon to Marlborough

A Wizard's Wanderings

Laurence Main was one of those distinctly British figures who blurred the line between travel writer, folklorist, and seeker of hidden landscapes. Best known for books on walking, ancient sites, and local legends, he openly described himself as “both a walker and a druid,” and his writing reflected that outlook throughout. Rather than treating the countryside as scenery to be crossed, Main approached it as a living map of myths, memories, and strange connections — a place where ruined abbeys, standing stones, old tracks, and half-forgotten stories all seemed to speak to one another.

His form of modern Druidry was rooted less in ceremony and more in walking, pilgrimage, and landscape experience. Main was associated with the Council of British Druid Orders and the Society of Ley Hunters, leading walks, talks, and “Vision Quests” at ancient sites around Britain. Fascinated by ley lines, sacred hills, dreams, and Arthurian echoes, he became part of the wider British “earth mysteries” tradition that flourished in the late twentieth century. There is something wonderfully eccentric and compelling about his work: part walking guide, part pub conversation, part mystical field notebook from someone convinced that Britain’s landscapes are still quietly muttering their old stories.

He's 75 now and the last interview I can find is for National Geographic. He is an expert on Cader Idris, where he has slept on the summit 24 times. He must be some sort of poet/madman. He looks exactly what you think a 75 year old druid looks like.

I have many of his walking/pubbing books from the 1980s and 1990s. The most curious are a series of unofficial long distance paths in the south of the country. They look self-published and contain hand-drawn maps and little useful information, other than books to read on first aid, veganism, ley-lines and druids.

It was only a matter of time before I attempted one.

I'm off to Wiltshire

Why bother with directions, when you can provide a bibliography

Swindon is chosen as the starting point. Civilisation in any comparable quantity will not be met until four days later in Salisbury. I should have been warned by the lack of the county's Good Beer Guide pubs. Wiltshire is an empty county.

Former Swindon haunts - the Victoria and the hospitality area of the old town - are saluted and it doesn't take long to reach the countryside. The first public footpath picked up at Coate Water. 

The only village accessed is Chiseldon. The Patriot Arms a victim of lack of patrons and "temporarily closed", following a longer-term closure.

No refreshments at Barbury Castle either. I expected at least an ice-cream van, if not a café.

The Ridgeway crossed before the Wessex Ridgeway is  picked up for delivery into Marlborough. 

Arrow straight walking, very few people and nowhere to stop.

But the views were good.

Other Ramblers heading onto the Ridgeway

The Wessex Ridgeway - very long, very dull

Marlborough - 2nd broadest high street in the land.... after Stockton-on-Tees

Enough pubs in Marlborough to warrant a separate blog.

Walk Details

Distance - 14 Miles

Geocaches - 26 

08/04/25 - The Camel Trail into Padstow, Saints Way Out

Ding Ding

Should you want to go to Padstow (plenty of chippers, no Good Beer Guide Pubs), you'll probably want to avoid the stress and expense of parking in town. 

I parked at Little Petherick - which provides two walking trails (sort of) into town.

 

Path	Description
Camel Trail	The Camel Trail is one of Cornwall’s most popular recreational routes, stretching around 18 miles along a disused railway line between Padstow, Wadebridge, and Bodmin. Walkers should avoid getting angry with cyclists that insist on dinging their little bells at you when approaching from behind. Far more hideous are the new breed of electric cyclists, who are not only lazy but think they have a right to silently creep up on you at 20 MPH before delivering said "ding".
Saints Way	The Saints' Way is a 30-mile walking trail that cuts across the heart of Cornwall, linking the north coast town of Padstow with the south coast harbour of Fowey. Steeped in history, the route follows ancient paths believed to have been used by early Christian pilgrims and traders as they journeyed between Ireland, Wales, and Brittany.

We decided to take the Camel trail first, which required some uninspiring walking until the views eventually opened up over the estuary. St Issey/Trevance especially annoying, where a new estate has been built and the footpaths only vaguely indicated on the ground. 

First views of Padstow

The Camel Trail is picked up at Halwyn. A C15th Pigeon house but more importantly for the C21st Tourist, a free car park. If you are prepared to drive down narrow lanes with grass growing up the middle.

The Second Time this structure has appeared on my blog

Shared access paths are never the easiest, especially when you are sharing with arrogant and entitled pricks. Christ, but cyclists do little to live down their reputation. They seem to get emboldened, the more of them there are. It's a relief to reach the end of the line.

The views were of course, excellent

Its possibly best to avoid the harbour area of Padstow. Take a few steps into the back streets and you will get an outdoor seat at a pub. We tried the Old Ship, where friendly service was countered by a lacklustre Tribute.

Padstow - from the opposite side of the Harbour

Space at the Old Ship

Lunch had to be Fish and Chips. We could have queued with everyone else for the full Rick Stein experience, but Chip Ahoy sounded more up our street. Next to a Padstow Brewery craft beer bar and a couple of available outdoor seats. This proved handy to get over the shock of Fish and Chips twice being £27. 

It's the families I feel sorry for! What do you do if you have hungry kids? Get them to share is the only obvious answer.

The Saints Way took us back to Little Petherick. And what super walking it was - Up and down over agricultural fields. The agriculture? Daffodils! 

Saints Way to the Obelisk

Who knew daffodils were industrially cultivated?

Followed by a around a mile along Little Penderick Creek.

End of the Day Walking

Super route, 14 years after I last completed something similar.

The saving up starts now for the next time.

Walk Details

Distance - 10 Miles

Geocaches - 9

Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in Cornwall, Walk 4

06/07/24 - The Torrent Walk Pub, Dolgellau

Following the Quaker Trail 

Breaking up the journey to the Llyn Peninsula with a stop off in Dolgellau. A solid looking market town which could only be improved if the main car park allowed more than a 3 hour ticket purchase.

We have to fit in a 5 miler, a pint and share the biggest sausage roll in the world. If you are passing, you could do a lot worse than lunch at Popty'r Dref.

There's a lot of Quaker history in the town - which forms the basis of a caching trail that we stumble on.

Dolgellau became a notable center for Quakerism, largely due to the efforts of local converts who embraced the teachings of George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends. This period saw the establishment of a significant Quaker community in the town, including the construction of a meeting house which served as a focal point for worship and communal activities. The Quaker influence in Dolgellau extended beyond religious practices, contributing to the social and economic fabric of the town, with Quaker families often being involved in local industries such as wool and leather. 

Up into the hills to the south of the town, we pass Quaker churches and crumbling meeting houses. Other humans? Duke of Edinburgh leaders, tracking their charges on GPS units.

Geocaching at an abandoned Quaker meeting room

Snowdonia views

A very decent walk from my favourite drinking druid, Laurence Main. His post walk suggestion is the Stag Inn but there is a new player in town since the book's inception 30 years ago. 

The Good Beer Guide entry is the Torrent Walk Hotel. 

Doing the Torrent Walk

Located down a tiny street, adjacent to the Cross Keys for easy crawling, this is a fine bar. Low ceiling, massive log burner, bar festooned with pump clips and 4 handpulls on. Tiny Rebel, Plum Porter, one unmembered and a fantastic first Eyton Gold by the Magic Dragon Brewing company.

Magic Dragon

We're back at the car with a minute to spare. Onwards - to the Llyn Peninsula.

Walk Details

Distance - 5.5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks in Snowdonia - Laurence Main, Walk 19 

10/10/22 - Torquay to Babbacombe

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 2 and a 6 Adventure Lab Caches

Pubs - 3

The Torbay area is not blessed with too many 2022 Good Beer Guide Pubs.  Going through the archives since 2017, I've managed to identify two additional pubs of interest that no longer make the grade, along with the sole survivor on route. Opening times are checked in Google. And WhatPub. 

It is Monday. The worst day for pub ticking.

The route combines two walks from Laurence Main's Pub Walks in South Devon. To give you an indication of when this was published, he spends an awful long time dissing Maggie Thatcher.

We can even start from the front door of our digs. Road walking leading to Kent's Cavern - a chargeable attraction of prehistoric caves - with a hidden green corridor called the Lincombe Slopes. This drops us nicely at the coast at Meadfoot Beach.

Meadfoot Beach

This was getting Laurence Angsty - Thatcher's Rock

The South West Coast Path.....

.....And a bit more of it

Into Babbacombe - a Torquay suburb. 

It transpires that the Good Beer Guide Tick - The Buccaneer - is closed on Monday. This, despite my meticulous research. Still, their loss in custom is our gain. There is nothing wrong with the steak baguette and Dartmoor Legend in the Babbacombe Inn next door. Similar architecture and the same views, as well.

Babbacombe in the Sunshine

Legend

We've decided that the walk back along a main road - that's also the bus route - is pointless. 

With time on our hands, we check out two former Good Beer Guide Ticks.

The Crown and Sceptre is to the far north of town. A handful of regulars, who all disappear to smoke in unison and a couple of pensioners who seize their moment of glory and get to explain to lost brummies how the Torbay buses work.  Honest enough boozer.

Crown and Sceptre, Babbacombe

Which leaves the Dolphin. And with hindsight, something I should have done myself.  No punters and the barmaid's child running wild does not make a great atmosphere. Positives -  The Otter Head was better condition than I had any real right to expect. Negatives - Halloween decorations up.  

Far too early for that sort of spooky nonsense.

But a taste of what's to come for the pub tickers, as the night's draw in.

Cobwebs in the Windows.  Must be October.