Newent Woods and May Hill

It was whilst walking The Malvens that we paused to gaze southward. "That must be May Hill," remarked my son and S- in unison.  "May what?" says I, thus displaying my ignorance of a prominent tree-topped hill that's only a few miles from my home. I resolved to correct this deficiency in my local knowledge at the earliest opportunity.

The walk started at the quaintly names hamlet of Glasshouse, where not all the houses are made of glass – or even of stone or brick.

In the middle of Newent Woods there are a couple of lakes. One of them is private, but the other is accessible via a footpath on the right (east) side. However, a couple of workmen who were attempting (with little apparent success) to fell a tree, assured us that there was also a good footpath around the west side, so that's the one we took.

The lakeside turned out to be a good place to stop and eat our picnic lunch.  Carelessly, I threw a few crumbs of Ryvita into the water, whereupon it burst into frenzied activity, alive with small fish.  They were black on top, with whiteish underbellies and striking pink fins. A fish expert I am definitely not, but perhaps they were perch, like this...

On returning home I searched in vain for the name of the lake, so until I know better it will be Newent Woods Lake to me. What I did discover was that it's a relatively modern creation, not shown on the OS 7th Series maps of 1955-61.

Leaving the woods, we skirted around Cliffords Mesne and soon regretted it, as part of the footpath was overgrown with brambles and nettles. Next time (we tell ourselves that there will be a 'next time') we'll explore the village, though we won't be stopping for a tipple. Sadly the pub, so clearly shown on our map, has closed.

From Cliffords Mesne it was up... up... up... to May Hill.  One website calls it a 'gentle climb', but by the time I reached the summit I was ready for a rest.

May Hill is rather flat-topped, making it hard to photograph the lovely views. As we approached the summit, Ross-on-Wye was clearly visible to the west. This first photo is taken looking north, back towards the Malverns.

And this one, from the opposite side of the hill, looks south over the River Severn.

One distinctive feature of May Hill is a clump of trees on its summit. They were originally planted to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, then added to at the time of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee.  I wonder why they didn't plant a few more for the Diamond Jubilee in 2002?

Perhaps this was the reason for calling a halt to the tree planting – a distinct ditch that, according to Wikipedia, is said to be an Iron Age earthwork. I would have said that it's definitely the remains of an Iron Age enclosure, but the experts may know enough to doubt it

Finally, I'm sure we've all heard of Swiss cow bells, so how nice it was to see that a little bit of Switzerland has come to May Hill.

In truth, this docile monster has closer connexions with Scotland than Switzerland as it's a Belted Galloway cow. The National Trust introduced her, together with several of her sisters, to chomp the grass and encourage the growth of wild flowers. Happy chomping, Bluebell!