Today we had a day trip to the North Norfolk coast.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Monday Jan 19th a grand day out to Wells Next the Sea and Holkham Deer Park. Janice and I (and Colin and Nick) are going to have a day out at the seaside. You can park in Mill Road NR23 1DB in Wells which is just off the A149 and near to Arch House B+B. Let’s meet at The Maltings, in Staithe Street for coffee about 10.15am. We then walk to The Lookout at Holkham Gap on the cycle path through the pine trees. Then it’s onto Holkham Park and finally a route out of Holkham Park back into Wells. The circular route is 9.5-10 miles. Aiming to finish 3.30pm. Plenty of toilets en route but please bring a packed lunch as the Courtyard Café in Holkham is closed."
We had an easy enough drive and arrived in plenty of time to meet the others at The Maltings. This was our route from there finishing where we had parked in Mill Rd.
Here are a few of my photos.
We met at The Maltings for coffee as planned.
Off we go. There were 10 of us today.
We loved the
Lifeboat Horse. It was created by artist Rachael Long as a tribute to the horses that once pulled the town’s lifeboat. During the summer it is located by the beacon on the harbour sandbank, appearing to stand at low tide and swim at high tide. It’s made from steel bars & whisky barrels and anchored to the seabed using huge metal pins. The sculpture is removed and stored during the colder months for protection from the harsher winter sea, and reinstated in the spring.
We walked along The Bank parallel to Beach Road towards the lifeboat station. Looking back at the town.
We saw plenty of seabirds on the sands as the tide was well on its way out.
We saw plenty of birds in the air too.
The coastguard lookout station.
We divide here with 4 going along the beach...
..while the rest followed the coast path.
A huge flock of geese lifted from the marshes and circled around us. It was quite a sight and sound.
The Lookout at Holkham Gap was closed for cleaning today.
Now we headed inland past lots of birds on the marshes. These are a group of wigeon.
We visited the Coke monument. Holkham Hall was built between 1734 and 1764 by
Thomas Coke, the first Earl of Leicester and remains the home of the
Coke family.
It was a bit misty today, but we got plenty of sunshine. There is good view from here to the house and beyond to
The Obelisk, which we would visit later.
There are lots of geese...
The 18th Century Palladian hall wasn't open to visit today (read about its history
here). We had our lunch at the picninc benches in front of it.
Onward again past the hall and the ice house.
There are great views looking back as you climb towards the obelisk.
This is where we had our group photo at the top of the post. And this was the view behind me as I took it.
The drive continues south into the distance. The Holkham estate is really big - just over 25,000 acres.
We passed the impressive
Great Barn where we saw a gathering of country gentlemen from a shooting party, who passewd us later. Designed
by the architect Samuel Wyatt, the Great Barn was built around 1790,
constructed from white Holkham Brick and roofed with slate. Unusually,
it was designed in a neo-classical style, therefore very much in keeping
with other Holkham buildings. Rather grander than your average barn!
Just by the gatehouse as we were leaving estate we foinf some snowdrops coming out.
I loved this avenue of trees just outside the gate.
A skein of geese overhead in the low sun.
Not far to go back to Wells now.
We finished at Buttlands, close to where we had parked on Mill Rd.
A lovely day out in the winter sun. Weren't we lucky with the weather? Thank-you Joyce for organising and leading us round and to the others for the additional company.
You can find more details of our 9.7 mile walk 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
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