Houghton Saturday, 29 January 2022

Due to the overwhelming interest in the walks lately, Liz kindly offered to start the same walk from Black Tar, Llangwm in the reverse direction. This meant that each group met twice on route to briefly catch up while passing. This was a good solution to an increasing dilemma which faces walk leaders these days and lets more walkers enjoy the walks.

My walk started from Houghton and after a brief chat we walked down the road towards Rooseferry and turned left following the surfaced track through lovely woodland and past Benton castle and through newly installed gates and styles. (Nice to see that us Ramblers are being looked after) After a brief stop for refreshments we continued through pasture land before dropping down towards the river where we had excellent views of the Cleddau and beyond. We managed to walk along the foreshore most of the way to Black Tar and saw many birds including teal, sheldduck, redshank and a pair of swans with two fully grown cygnets. In recent years the swans have nested successfully on a floating wooden platform made by the locals to prevent their nest being swamped by high spring tides.

We had lunch at Black Tar at the picnic tables and then walked up the road before going left and cutting across a muddy path to Llangwm rugby fields. We proceeded through the village and walked along the valley to Sardis and down Thurston Lane. We soon turned left and stopped to view the ancient Neolithic burial chamber also known as the Hanging Stone and admired the distant views from its prominent position. From here we followed the paths which led us to the public track which took us back to Houghton.

My thanks to Liz for leading the other walk and to all 32 ramblers who took part in an enjoyable day out.