On Friday morning we climbed May Hill. It’s 971 feet above sea level and has a trig point at the summit.
The path up is through woodland until we reached the summit which is an open area of grassland and heath; about eighty acres. Cattle were grazing wearing cow bells, something I hadn’t seen before in England. There is a spinney at the summit, clearly visible in the photograph above. It was planted with Corsican pines to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and then some gaps were filled in to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. Around the copse are traces of an Iron Age ditch.
It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the variety of habitats up there, where the air is cool and clear. In the flora department look out for heath bedstraw and bog pimpernel, if you can identify them – I couldn’t. Turning to fauna you might see beetles, damselflies, rare butterflies and a variety of birds.There are panoramic views in every direction and rustic benches to take them in while having a rest.
Much of Herefordshire is in sight, with the Black Mountains and Radnor Hills beyond, and the familiar profiles of the Malvern Hills and the Cotswolds form a memorable backdrop. Closer at hand are Hobbs Ridge and Edge Hill within the Forest of Dean, with the Brecon Beacons distantly to the west.
That is an extract from Mike Dunn’s Walking in the Forest of Dean, a Cicerone Guide, that was our inspiration last week. Cicerone was recommended to me by the Chief Dragonfly and it seems an excellent series. The OS maps overlaid with routes, fairly clear instructions and being pocket size all found favour with me. The Cicerone ambit is wide. There are many guides to walking and bicycling in Britain and the Isle of Man. Guides to more far-flung parts are mostly for walkers or trekkers. Don’t lets get bogged down distinguishing them but I’d call a trekker, a walker who sleeps in a tent. Europe, Africa, Eastern Europe, Himalaya, the Mediterranean, the Americas, Iceland and I nearly forgot Ireland, so there’s plenty of choice.