Woodditton Walk

"Did you want to go for a walk?", asked Dawn about 10am this morning, as she often does without any advance warning on a Sunday.

I quickly mapped out a route for us taking in some of Thursday's walk, but about half the distance, starting from Woodditton and taking in some of the Devil's Dyke and Icknield Way. This was our route.

Here are some of my photos.

The start of our walk was the same as when the 10 of us did Devil's Dyke (see here) in December 2019.

There is a display board at the start.

"Devil's Dyke is the largest of several earthworks in south Cambridgeshire that were designed to control movement along the ancient Roman roads. When it was created, it completely blocked a narrow land corridor between the southern edge of a region of water-logged marsh (now known as The Fens) in the north-west and dense woodlands in the south, so making circumvention difficult and forming an effective defensive barrier for the lands to the east. The dyke crossed three important Roman roads, including the ancient Icknield Way, and may thus have served as a way of controlling trade and movement in and out of the area."

The path was quite dry (hooray!), but we did have to watch out for roots.

As I had on Thursday, I tried to spot Ely Cathedral, but it was a bit too hazy today.

Here we joined the Icknield way and our route from Thursday.

I love the wide grassy paths across the huge fields.

Dawn spotted some hares. We stopped and watched them for a few minutes but they never started boxing.

We saw plenty more hares on our walk. This one seemed to be watching the man walking along the road below.

We didn't go in as there was a service on, but we did circumnavigate the Grade I listed  St. Mary's Church. Woodditton. (You can see the Historic England listing here). The octagonal tower is quite distinctive. As the church site states...

"The Church stands three quarters of a mile from the main village centre and is set in peaceful rural surroundings with fine old horse-chestnut trees growing in the churchyard. 

Its origins go back to the 12th century when it is believed to have been a wooden building but evidence has been uncovered pointing to the existence of a small monastery on the site, pre-dating the church. Like most old churches it has been altered or added to over the centuries but the pointed arch doors and windows date the present structure to the Early Gothic period."

We liked the snowdrops...

...and the ornate gravestones. 

We passed the gently bleating kids...

...at the mill. Like the church tower, the remaining base is octagonal.

We followed the Icknield way to Saxon Street.

As we turned off it, there was a sign saying it was closed a little further on.

We passed The Reindeer pub. It didn't look like it was still in business. Is it?

Now we turned south-west to return to Woodditton.

This robin caught our attention with its plangent song and bright pumage.

Through the trees we got a glimpse of some lambs - the first we had seen this year.

The fields are very rectangular and the paths good.

We crossed the route from Thursday's walk here at The Granary Estates.

Back in Woodditton, just around the corner from where we had parked, we found this memorial to the late Queen Elizabeth.

Then it was back in the car to head for home, but not before visiting Kirtling Church so Dawn could see what I'd photographed on Thursday (see here).

A lovely morning's walk, You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.