This was another Durham County Council walk, lead by Ian and stewarded by David, Steve and yours truly - and with 31 walkers and two dogs.
This was the first "summery" walk this year - and I atually managed to get down to a short-sleeved t-shirt.
The walk was a simple circular starting in Barnard Castle visiting Lartington Park which has some very fine and quite old trees - and a cemetary for County Durham's more notable Roman Catholics.
We returned to Barny via Deepdale - a well-named narrow, wooded valley - quite steep and just a bit tricky in its higher parts - and chockablock with wild flowers.
Barny used to be a major garrison town and is surrounded by old army camps, and Deepdale was one of the training areas. One of the pics below shows a WW2 War Department sign which seems to have become part of a tree over the last 60 years!
Fab little walk - not to be done after a lot of wet weather as Deepdale becomes a muddy skating rink with above some interestingly steep ground....
Rocks at the top provide a cracking lunch and bouldering spot.
Didnt take too many pics as I was busy stewarding....and I try to avoid taking pics on DCC walks in which you might be able to recognise anybody.
7.5 miles and 750 feet of climbing
