As today was forecast to be one of the best days so far this year weatherwise, and definitely the sunniest since my camera arrived, my sister and I decided to do the Farley Mount - Ashley walk from Walkingworld as recommended by Helena (read her review and take a look at her Flickr photo set to see what she thought of the walk in spring).
We got off to a bad start with the instructions saying “..park in the most westerly car park on the southern side of the road at Farley Mount Country Park - great if you have a compass! For those who don’t what they really mean is the Monument car park on the left hand side of the road. Unfortunately this was full - lots of people making the most of a nice winters day so we ended up parking in a car park about 100 yards further back up the road and then started the walk. From then on, the directions were excellent especially the inclusion of pictures at major junctions and the walk was really enjoyable - definitely worth the £1.50 charge for the walk details.
As Helena mentioned, the walk was not quite the “easy walk” you would expect from the description on the web site. There were quite a few inclines and in places the track was incredibly muddy, specifically the Clarendon Way section which was particularly muddy in one place - definitely one for walking boots and not shoes!
The walk itself though was really nice, although I feel early spring is probably the best time to do it - less mud, more wildlife (although we did see a large herd of deer, a woodpecker and various other birds) and a sunny day would definitely enhance the excellent views.
Take a look at the rest of my Flickr set to see other pictures from the walk.