Lindsey Trail Walk

The initial idea for the Trail came from local carriage drivers who have worked in partnership with the Mid-Lincs Local Access Forum and Lincolnshire County Council to develop it. The Trail has been developed as part of the Lincolnshire Countryside Access & Rights of Way Improvement Plan and Lincolnshire Wolds AONB Management Plan.

Being the highest land between Kent and Yorkshire makes the Lincolnshire Wolds a great place for stunning views. On a clear day you can see for miles into neighbouring counties and across the marshes to the coast.

As you follow the chalk escarpment on the eastern section of the Trail there are views across the Bain Valley to the Lincolnshire Limestone Edge and Lincoln Cathedral. You may even be able to see the cooling towers of the Trent Valley power stations beyond.

On the southern section of the Trail your view is across the Fens and you may see Boston Stump, the tower of St Botolph’s church in Boston, and on a clear day Hunstanton cliffs on the Norfolk coast.

Historic attractions which can be seen from the Trail include Hainton Hall, South Ormsby Hall and Harrington Hall, where it is suggested that Lord Tennyson based his famous poem ‘Come into the garden Maud’.

The Wolds landscape inspired the writing of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, one of the most successful poets of Victorian times. He was born in Somersby, in the Wolds, and held the post of Poet Laureate from 1850 to his death in 1892.

The northern part of the Trail passes through Walesby and Tealby, nestled at the foot of the western scarp face made of ironstone and limestone, once mined on an industrial scale. Willingham Woods grow on the blown sands, deposited here after the last Ice Age retreat.

The central section of the Trail uses the Bluestone Heath Road, an ancient route that follows the south east chalk escarpment. The soils here are thin and flinty, often showing both the red and white chalk beneath.

In the south and west of the Wolds, and the southern part of the Trail, the geology is different again, with seasonally waterlogged clays in the broad river valleys, with buildings of locally made bricks and Spilsby Sandstone. Known locally as ‘greenstone’ as it weathers to a khaki-green colour, fossils found show that it was deposited about 140 million years ago in a shallow sea.