Louth walk - Louth circuit - South Elkington walk

Route: Louth

Area: Lincolnshire Wolds

Date of walk: 22nd November 2020

Walkers: Andrew and Gilly

Distance: 8.8 miles

Ascent: 800 feet

Weather: Mostly sunny

Louth is an historic Georgian market town, and is well worth a visit in its own right. In the centre of the old town is St. James’s Church, a magnificent and widely admired example of church architecture with a 16th century spire soaring to 295 feet, making it the tallest parish church spire in England. We parked in one of the side streets by the church and walked away from it along Westgate, admiring the old Georgian townhouses as we did so. At the edge of the town there’s a choice of two paths – a lower path by the banks of the River Lud and a higher one along Hubbard’s Hills beside the golf course. By accident rather than design we chose the higher one, which looks down on the alternative path

On reaching the Hallington road we walked under the bypass and joined a path through the fields which took us onto the wolds. There were good views back to the spire of St James’s Church on this section of the walk, as well as the Lincolnshire coast in the far distance. After a very short road section we turned off to follow a permissive footpath past Jack’s Furze and down to the A157. We crossed the road to enter into Welton Vale, a wooded valley, and home to some fine specimen trees

We climbed out of the vale and past a disused quarry, following a path into South Elkington passing by All Saints Church, which is attractively situated by the village pond. The font and tower of the village church date from the 15th century. We followed a path through a field, and had some difficulty in locating a stile leading into the adjoining woodland. There’s no path leading to it, and it’s very hard to see. For anyone following this route, the best tip is to keep to the higher ground in the field, then descend steeply to the fence at the edge of the wood

After a short woodland section we followed a path beside Icehouse Plantation and through some beautiful parkland before climbing up to cross the A631. We walked through Cow Pasture Wood and past a couple of farms to enter Louth, where we walked back along Westgate to end a delightful walk

Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)