Lincoln to Bardney

Walked by Sally and Richard, Friday 17th October 2014.

About 16 miles (7 hours), 15.5 miles on route of Viking Way, plus 1.5 miles from home to Downham Market Station.

Click here for all our photos from this walk.

This was our first day of a 6-day walk from Lincoln to the Humber Bridge, and I started the holiday rather less fit than I might have hoped, so I was tired and achey by the time we reached Bardney. However it had been a superb walk. We could have walked all the way from Lincoln to Bardney on the south bank of the River Witham, a distance of only about 10 miles, but the Viking Way doesn't do this, instead following the north bank of the river for just 3 miles or so, and meandering considerably to the north through delightful countryside. It was mild, as the weather forecast said it would be, but much to our surprise it remained dry all day and it was sunny most of the time.

We walked to Downham Market Station in the dark and caught the 7.06 to Ely, then on to Peterborough and Lincoln, arriving on time at 10.00. We walked up High Street, very much quieter than when we were last here (on a Saturday), stopping at Tesco to buy supplies then climbing up and around the Cathedral, avoiding first a group of foreign students then a group of schoolchildren.

We turned right, passed Potter Gate and crossed the main road, then took Lindum Terrace, a lovely leafy road with views down to the river and across to our approach route to Lincoln three weeks ago. We walked through the arboretum, then took a passageway which passed between the hospital (above us to our left) and rows of terraced houses descending to the river (to our right). We passed above a large electricity sub station which we believe to be on the site of the power station where Richard's father worked when they lived in Lincoln around the time Richard was born.

We crossed another main road and walked through an industrial estate, then we crossed a railway line - and Lincoln was behind us (though there were views back to the cathedral for most of the day, and occasionally for much of the holiday). We walked beside the railway for a while then cut down to the river past the delightful All Saints Church, part of the medieval village of Greetwell.

The River Witham is canalised in this section, so in some senses walking along it was a bit boring, but we had swans, cows and a heron for company. We stopped for lunch within site of the village of Cherry Willingham, and watched three aircraft in formation 'looping the loop' several times. We left the river near Fiskerton. We'd not seen anyone else on the north bank of the river, but a number of cyclists were making their way across the footbridge to the Water Rail Trail, a cycle route which goes from Lincoln to Boston (and forms part of National Cycle Route 1) and follows the south bank of the River Witham at this stage.

We meandered around the outskirts of Fiskerton then set off across attractive countryside, now also on the Lincolnshire Limewoods trail. The Lincolnshire Limewoods, about half of which are included in the Bardney Limewoods National Nature Reserve, actually comprise a variety of species but (apparently!) they are dominated by the Small-leaved Lime Tilia cordata. Between Fiskerton and Bardney we went close to several of the limewoods, and the path also took us past several of the many ancient religious sites in the area. There was only really anything to see at Barlings Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery founded in 1154. We stopped for a rest sitting on outlying stones near the one remaining section of the monastery. In addition to the woods and religious sites, the other feature of this section of the walk was a number of recently ploughed fields that was had to walk across. The route wasn't always entirely clear, though we didn't have any serious problems - and we ended up with rather muddy boots!

We skirted Foxhall Wood and passed an interesting Church and Hall at Stainfield. We had to negotiate a couple of electric fences, which I found a bit tricky because my legs were getting tired. After a section of road walking we followed a track to 'King's Hill' (in reality no more than a mound), then right to a water tower and left to Bardney - at last. We saw an owl.

We left he route of the Viking Way and walked the short distance to the Bardney Heritage Centre, where we found our accommodation (a former railway wagon, once used for transporting livestock), fish and chips being served from a former brake wagon, and our host Barry. We spent a little while recovering, then went for fish and chips, then watched TV (yes, all mod cons in the railway wagon!) and had an early night.

following day