The Long Walk at Kedleston

Having wandered around for a while admiring the wildflower beds, the second half of my Kedleston visit saw me attempting the Long Walk which runs round the Pleasure Grounds. It's only three miles, but I've put on weight and become awfully un-fit during lockdown, and on my last visit there was no way I could finish the complete circular walk.



My intent this time was to tackle the walk in the opposite direction, and if I ran out of energy to take the same short cut back through the middle of the park. This would mean I'd at least seen the whole route, even if I didn't walk it all in one day.









This way the walk starts gently, heading in front of the hall and downhill to the lake, where herons sit patiently waiting for dinner, while swans and geese paddle about more energetically.

Then, entering the trees the path leads uphill. It seemed a shorter, but steeper, climb from this direction, before reaching the low ridge that the path follows.


















The path here is deceptive, and not as flat as I expected. Instead it undulates up and down, and I was starting to resent every little uphill section, sitting down whenever I found a seat, and seriously not expecting to make it the whole way round.

Fortunately, at roughly half way round, there's an open space with seats and a splendid view towards the hall. Immediately in front of it are the Pleasure Grounds, and from this side you can clearly see the ha ha which keeps the sheep in the outer area of fields.

A little further and it was time to decide whether to carry on with the full walk or take the shortcut back. Assuming the ground would now be flat or downhill I voted to carry on. It wasn't as flat as I'd hoped, and my stops were getting more and more frequent.

Eventually the path started to head downhill, but I now realised we'd been far longer than I expected and it was getting rather close to closing time, so instead of a gentle amble along the last section, investigating tree stumps and the children's wooden 'stepping stones', I felt we had to up the pace.

Two hours seems a ridiculously long time in which to walk three miles, but I'm pleased I made it the whole way. Next I want to explore walks along the river, and out into the wider park away from the house - the longest is again about three miles and at least it's flatter.