Rattlesden Walk

This was the invite from Joyce...

"Friday 27th September will be a circular walk from the delightful village of Rattlesden via several Halls with moats and a stretch along the River Rat. We will start from the Car Park at the Village Hall, Birds Green, Rattlesden , IP30 0RQ, Grid ref. TL980590 at 10 a.m. Depending on conditions and peoples preferences on the day this will be a 7 or 10+ mile walk and led by John"

I was pleasantly surprised to get 10 others turn up on a day that threatened to be a bit rainy later. This was our route. Alas I failed to start my tracker at the beginning of the walk, but this is it reconstructed.

We headed southwards first past Poystreet Green and Turned North-East to go past Cockerills Hall. (shown on the map as Cockerells Hall). We carried on East and then North East with a view of the Mill at Mill Green, then past Hollybush Farm and  Wood Hall back down to the Rattlesden River. Along Gipsy Lane through the woods and Back Road we turned towards BrookVale Farm and climbed up towards Clopton Hall with views back to Rattlesden Village. We stopped Halfway at Clopton Green for our lunch, part of the Clopton Estate, on the market a couple of years ago for £14.5m.

Onwards towards Drinkstone Green we started to get a little sprinkle of rain, but I cut only about 1/2 mile out of my full planned route. But that meant we missed a sight of our last moated hall - Drinkstone House, no longer on the market, but it was on sale for £2m.

Then it was back along some nice paths to Rattlesden, taking a bit of a detour to avoid walking across a lrage expanse of recently ploughed field where the footpath had become obliterated.

Here are some photos...
At the start. Cats and herds, anybody?

It's a lovely village

Soon we were climbing our of the village. What? Climbing in Suffolk?

We wondered when Happy Hour was, but thought it unlikely to be before midday.

The Mill at Mill Green.

Hollybush Farm

Wood Hall.

Here we are crossing Rattlesden River...

...to get to Gipsy Lane.

The view back to Rattlesden as we climbed up again.

We saw lots of pheasants...

...as we approached Clopton Hall....

...and its moat.

 Our lunch stop at Clopton Green was on a nicely mown bank.

We enjoyed our conversation about the estate with the man on the mower. "Come back in the spring" , he recommended. Hmm one for the Suffolk Walking Festival, perhaps?

We got a view of Woolpit Church...

...as we headed for Drinkstone Green

After a nice secluded path we emerged by these cottages.

By Peggs Farm.

We were nearing our starting point now with a view of the village.

We walked on this path...

 

...instead of this one.

Path? What path?

And finally came back to Rattlesden.

Oh. In case you are wondering... I cheated by interleaving photos from my recces among those from today. It wasn't as sunny as it may appear!

So thanks to all who came. It's always good to explore new routes and places, and even better with friends. You can see more of my photos from my 2 recce walks here and here. You can also see more details of the route of the second half of our walk here and my original recce here  on MapMyWalk. You can get a GPX file of our route on the day here.