St Catherine's Hill

We had recently bought a car, and so it became much easier to get out and about. One Autumn evening, we decided to pop out to St Catherine's Hill. I had told Anne there was something special on it, and she had been wanting to see what it was for several weeks.

Anne enjoys riding in our new car.

We parked at the bottom of the hill, and started up. It fell to me to push Noah's push-chair up. The hill is an old Iron Age hill-fort, which implies that it's steepest hill for miles around. It was hard work, and navigating the steps that went up the steepest parts was the most difficult.

I push Noah up a hill. It's steeper than it looks, and there are lots of steps.

At the top, the path ends at the Mizmaze, an ancient pathway cut into the turf on the top of the hill. In the shape of a square, the pathway winds backwards and forwards upon itself until ending in the middle. Anne, already tired from the climb up the hill, bravely took it on. I think if she had realised how long the path really was, she would have had a rest first.

Anne walks around the ancient Mizmaze.

The light was fading, so we walked around the crest of the hill to the path down on the other side. We were surprised to find an apple tree, bearing lots of ripe fruit. We stopped for half an hour and picked some.

I pick apples, while Noah takes a bite out of as many as he can.

Then it was down the staircase on the other side of the hill (it's that steep), along the river back to the car-park and home.

Noah enjoys bumping down the steps in our sturdy push-chair.

Back