6.56 miles 3h 30m ascent 201m
Polmaddy-Castlemaddy
A simple walk from the parking area at Polmaddy, up the forestry track to Castlemaddy then back by the Pack Road to the Polmaddy Fermtoun.
The was an interesting collection of flowers along the way. Much of the track’s edge was lined with stands of flowers, now in seed, that we could not identify until we found one flower hanging on to its petals – kidney vetch. I was also confronted by a willow herb like plant but with hairy stems and yellow flowers. This one had flummoxed me for years. I did once find out what it was, but then forgot. Audrey nailed it – narrow-leaved hawkweed. It isn’t in the books I have at home. The lesser centaury was in flower, there was plenty of sneezewort and some yarrow. WE even spotted chamomile later. But the one that most caught our eye (but defied my camera’s focussing) was ragged robin. Audrey had only previously seen it between Moscow and St Petersburg. It was the first I time I had seen it.
Long ago, this whole area was a Royal Forest and the hunting lodge Castlemaddy, caiseal madadh, castle of the dogs, was where the royal hounds were kept. The modern-day cottage at Castlemaddy, once a farmhouse, was locked-up, almost fortified, but in good repair. The ‘back garden’ is completely overgrown. The red signs say “MOD Property – Keep Out”. Apparently the MOD has it for practice in breaching buildings.
We turned back at the cottage but this time didn’t re-cross the bridge over Polmaddy Burn, continuing instead along the track that would cross the Old Pack Road. In fact the forestry track crossed the pack Road three times. This section of the Pack Road is through overgrown wet bracken, so we stuck with the forestry track until the third crossing. That left us with the section of the pack road that has all the fallen trees across it.
Since this would be our third time negotiating these fallen trees, we made a better job of it. My advice is to avoid the temptation to take what seem shorter detours that require walking through new fell. Detours through where the trees still stand in remaining forest are a better choice, even if they are a much longer detour. The walking is easier there.
The last few fallen trees we could clamber over – taking care this time not to get pine pitch on us. The path was quite overgrown in places and we found ourselves wading through long (wet) grass. It was much more overgrown than it had been only a few weeks earlier. It would have been hard to find had we not already known where it was.
At the Polmaddy Inn we decided to stop for a drink. But there was no portly landlord, or buxom serving wench, no roaring fire and no tankards of ale. Indeed there were no walls above knee height. We just stood at the inn’s ruins and took swigs from our water bottles. And posed for a selfie.
