The Grey Panthers

A year-round walk, starting from a well used and much loved Country Park.
There are no gradients to speak of, and the route is essentially easy to navigate, with just a couple of stiles.
However, there was one section where the field footpath apparently led to a small gate. This gate, though, was heavily locked shut, and short of retracing steps to find an alternative route we were obliged to climb over an adjacent (metal barred) fence.
The half-way point of Bishop Middleham is a delightful and peaceful village, well worth calling-in at.
And there is plenty to see and enjoy in Hardwick Park itself.

For a Memory Map overlay of the walk described, please select the above link.
(Overlay made with Version 5 of Memory Map)

Some new mapping software is now available which you may want to try, - QUO mapping. You can download the software for free from the link below, complete with demonstration maps. Having installed QUO, you can import and export Memory Map overlays. Thus YOU DON'T NEED Memory Map to use any of the overlays provided on the Grey Panthers web site, - just use QUO!!

Park in the Visitor Centre car park for Hardwick Park (NZ344 287), - fee to pay.
Head East beside the boundary of the Country Park. This is a broad track and easy to follow.~
Where the track turns sharp right (if you continue ahead, instead, you will reach Brakes Farm) continue until you reach a Bridleway sign on your left that directs you towards Bishop MIddleham.
Follow the bridleway until you reach an old railway trackbed at NZ332 302.
Here turn left and after about 1/4 mile continue along the clear and well-defined track to Bishop Middleham.
When you reach Bishop Middleham, turn right into Church Street and head for St. Michael's Church.
Continue past the church and make for Front Street, where you turn right.
Just before Front Street meets Bank Top there is a track that heads Southwards and is signposted as being a footpath to Hardwick Park.
Follow the footpath signs to follow a field footpath that heads in a South Easterly direction, eventually meeting a broad track heading Southwards.
(We had difficulty with the field footpath; the path we followed ended up at a locked gate and we had to climb over an adjacent metal barred fence.)
Continue on a broad track in a South Easterly direction once you have crossed a small brook.
When you reach a branch in the track, turn right to head almost due South over a Golf Course.
Where the track over the Golf Course reaches a plantation, there is a track on your left that heads through the plantation, eventually meeting the A177 main road.
Cross the A177 (with CARE) and then turn right to follow the field footpath to Sedgefield.
Head into Sedgefield using the footpath that passes through the courtyard of the Hardwick Arms Hotel.
From Sedgefield retrace your steps, but where the two footpaths meet at the first field boundary you come to then take the left-hand path that returns you to Hardwick Park.
In Hardwick Park, take a footpath that follows the edge of the lake and explore the grounds as per one of the posted maps for the park.