U3A Horningsea Walk

Today it was Dave's turn to lead the U3A Bury St Edmunds Longer Walks group on an expedition.

He chose to lead us on a circular walk from Horningsea via Clayhithe and Cambridge. This was his invite.

"I am planning a 9 mile walk to and from The Plough and Fleece in Horningsea CB25 9TG most of which follows the river Cam into Cambridge and back.  Can we meet at 9.45 for a 10 am start.  Please let me know if you are coming.  I suggest we share cars.  I will be taking mine so let me know if you would like a lift .  There are no parking restrictions in Horningsea and I have just parked on the road near the pub when I have done this walk before, but there are side roads you can park on too.  Dave".

Dawn had things to do in the garden so it was only me who joined the 6 others on the walk.

This was our route.

Here are a few of my photos.

Assembled for the off in bright sunshine. Our route was following the Fen Rivers Way and Harcamlow Way.

We came to this field where the path disappeared. Fortunately it wasn't muddy.

A pair of roe deer scurried across the field beside us and then crossed our path in front of us.

We liked this giant haystack....

...and this house.

Shortly afterwards we crossed Clayhithe bridge..

...and turned south along the towpath along the River Cam.

Glimpsed in a field through the hedge.

We passed Horningsea on the other side of the river.

We had our drinks stop at Baits Bite Lock. It is currently closed as it has been deemed structurally unsafe (see here). No shortcut back to our cars from here today then.

We didn't see many rowers today, but this 4 passed us.

It was quite warm and we all had to shed our outer layers.

We came to the new bridge for the cycle path from Cambridge North station heading south. Here we said au revoir to Rosalind who cut a mile or two off the walk.

Dave had planned for a beer stop at the Green Dragon,. Alas it had changed its opening hours from 12pm to 11pm to 5pm to 11pm

.

We recrossed the river...

..and had our lunch beside it.

We passed  St. Mary's Fen Ditton Church but it wasn't open to visit.

Rosalind had waited here for us and we finished the walk as a complete group of 7 once more.

The reflection of the ripples in the river on the underside of the A14 bridge are quite soothing, but the noise of the traffic, alas, isn't.

We got a view of the misnamed Biggin Abbey - it was never inhabited by monks. The farmhouse is a surviving part of the residence of The Bishops of Ely and was visited by Henry III, Edward I and

Edward II, it was once moated. A small attic room known as the 'Monks Prison' may have been used as a chapel.

Although our paths today were all fine, there was some flooding in some of the fields.

We finished out walk with drinks at the community-owned Plough and Fleece.

The sun was still shining. Someone asked about the village name. I was able to quote a previous post where I quoted this link  It tells us...

"The parish of Horningsea, which takes its name from the Old English word for hill and island, lies 6 km. (3½ miles) NNE. of Cambridge.  During the 2nd millennium B.C. what became Horningsea stood on a chalk promontory between tidal water and marsh, and in the early Middle Ages the parish comprised an elongated peninsula jutting northwards into undrained fenland.".

That was a lovely walk and we were blessed by great weather. Thank-you Dave for leading the walk and to the others for the additional company.

You can find more details of our 9.5 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other related walks you can find on my blog include:

• Horningsea and Fen Ditton Walk (Jan 2019)
• Fen Ditton Clayhithe, Horningsea and River Cam Walk (Aug 2020)
• Quy Fen Walk (May 2023)