Arbury Hill

County - Northamptonshire

Elevation – 225m

Date – 13/07/2021

Distance – 3km

Elevation climbed - 74m

When I first imagined this challenge, it was in part because I had a job which took me around the country, and I envisaged myself nipping off after a meeting to quickly scurry up a County Top. Since then Covid has meant there's been no meetings to attend, and I've also changed jobs, which has put a slight spanner in the works. However, a trip to Leicester got me thinking about County Top possibilities in the area and a quick look at the map showed me that the Northants Top was but a short detour from the route home...

20 mins after leaving the motorway I was nosing the car into a little layby at the start of the footpath up Arbury Hill, the highest point of Northamptonshire. I must admit I've never really given the countryside of Northants much thought in life, but it's up there with any stereotypes of rolling English rural life; a proper hidden gem.

The walk up Arbury Hill is a short one. I started through a lovely butterfly-tastic meadow, then along an old hedgerow where the sheep gave me their watchful glare. Eventually I came to the point on the map where the footpath met a track to the top. Alas there was a rusty old gate, backed with barbed wire, which strongly indicated that the landowner wasn't mad keen on County Toppers headed that way:

I'd got my instructions from the generally excellent Walking Englishman website, and he hadn't mentioned this at all, so I was a bit perplexed as to what to do. There was no obvious path to the top. A hundred yards back there was a more modern gate, tied to its post, so I headed back there and gave my next steps some thought. I looked around for an obvious farm; although there were a range of distant buildings in view, none of them looked especially farm-y, and how would I know which one this land belonged to?

In the end I thought "what the hell", and hopped the fence. I puffed up the hill over the old motorcross tracks and reached the summit five minutes later, rewarded with views over Northants which I inadequately captured:

Photo taken, and frankly expecting a quad-bike riding farmer to turn up at any moment, shotgun in the crook of his arm, I hurried back to the path, startling a green woodpecker into emitting its distinctive laugh as it flew off. With relief I hopped the gate and got back to the footpath, and headed back to the car.

To be honest I felt pretty bad about trespassing. When I got home I had a look at the excellent Hillbagging website which explained who the landowner was (his name is Roger) and where to find him (and that he's usually quite happy to let you go up with permission so long as you don't have a sheep-worrying dog). If I'd done this in advance then I'd definitely have gone to Roger first; lesson learned.

Roger, if you're listening to this, my apologies!