Watersmeet Circular Walk through Rockford
This week’s circular pub walk was a 3 1/2 mile walk from Watersmeet, up the zig-zag path behind it to Trilley Wood down back towards the river at Ash Bridge then, following the river, up to the Rockford Inn. Then a short bit along the road up to the end of Long Pool Wood, down past Long Pool, up to Barton Wood & finally back down to the river at Watersmeet.
The Rockford Inn has been through some turbulent times over the past couple of years but I’m now glad to see that it is back under the capable hands of Cathryn & Sarah and so will be back to being one of my favourite pubs in the area.
The wooded hillsides are covered with the yellow flowers of Common Cow-Wheat at the moment. It is a hemiparasitic plant, taking some of its nutrients from the Whortleberry plants and it’s definitely noticeable that there are no actual whortleberries on the plants where the cow-wheat grows but there are where it’s absent.
Along the woodland floor are plenty of Dor beetles – these are the UK’s dung beetles, doing their bit to keep the woods tidy for us
I just happened to pass a fisherman landing a young salmon just downstream of Rockford. Currently, all fishing is catch & release & so this fish was carefully let back into the river to allow it to continue its way up to the spawning pools between Rockford & Brendon or maybe even further up towards the moor.
Another thing to look out for as you walk along the river is otter spraint. Look out for a prominent rock in the river which has bright green algae on it and you should find where they leave their calling cards to mark their passing – full of fish bones & scales and smells like Jasmine Tea!
