Holywell Dingle Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is a cache in a beautiful area of woodland known as Holywell
Dingle near Eardisley in Herefordshire.
The Dingle is a 19 acre strip of woodland in a steep sided valley
with a small stream running along it's length. The woodland is a
made up of a variety of trees - mainly oak and ash but also wild
cherry, hazel, holly and yew.
Although the Dingle is now very natural, over the last couple of
centuries it has been interfered with in a variety of ways - a pool
was created at the north end (which has now dried out) and
Rhododendrons were planted. These have been removed gradually over
the last few years, leaving the woodland in a more natural state.
The cache was placed during the spring - probably the best time to
visit, where you can see the bluebells across the valley floor,
along with many other wild flowers. Of course, visiting during the
rest of the year will be enjoyable!
Make sure you go down into the dingle (next to the stream) before
you follow your GPS or you'll end up trying to go down a steep
cliff!
The Dingle can be accessed from a number of directions:
- From the East, you can park at Newhouse Farm by the farm shop
(SO 31795 51640) - try their (delicious!) organic ice cream while
you're there! Theres only room for about one car here, maybe 2. I
recommend this route. Theres a permissive path that makes the route
shorter than it will appear on your map, this allows you to cut off
a corner of the route if you're in a hurry. Its worth noting that
when you first access the route from here, you can quite easily
miss the path you want to take, its a sharp right back on yourself
down the valley side.
- From the West, you can park at SO 30867 50950 on the road north
out of Eardisley and walk across the fields to the Dingle. I
haven't done this walk, but theres room for a few cars in a layby
where the path starts.
- From the South. This is a nice walk, you can start in Eardisley
and walk out of the village on the Almeley road. Take the footpath
to your left at SO 31385 49765 and follow the path, going down the
hill into the Dingle when you reach the pile of logs. The path
winds its way through the dingle and you can leave by either of the
West or East ways in and walk back along the road, or continue
along the footpaths via Almeley for about a 7 or 8 mile walk in
fairly flat and plesant country!
- From anywhere else - theres loads of footpaths around the area,
many of which you can easily combine into a walk of around 3 miles
upwards, depending on how much road walking you want to do. If
you're short for time, the access from the Newhouse Farm is
probably the most straight forward, about a 20-30 minute walk there
and back.
The cache should be easy to find, though it may get more grown-over
as the year progresses!
- Many thanks to
kateread for moving the cache away from a dead fox! It's now
about 5 meters away from the listed co-ordinates, half-way along a
fallen tree-trunk.
Summer Clues: (it can be harder to find in the summer due to
tree cover, highlight the box to see the clues!)
- Make sure you're in the valley, next to the stream.
- You should have the stream to your west
- Walk along the path until the cache is shown to the due
east
- The cache should be less than 50 meters to the east, just where
the valley side becomes steeper
- You might need to break your way through the
brambles!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unys jnl nybat n snyyra gerr-gehax.