Walking around Hook Norton Brewery

Mabel enjoying the view

As the husband and I had a day to ourselves we thought we'd take Mabel the dog somewhere different for a walk, with the added incentive of lunch in the cafe at the local brewery, which we hadn't tried.
We parked near the brewery and walked a circular route of about 4 miles. I much prefer to walk a loop- I plot all sorts of convoluted routes to avoid turning round and going back the way I've come. Not sure what that means psychologically!

Hook Norton Brewery is the tall building in the foreground

 There were lots of ripe and ripening blackberries and elderberries and some feral apples in a hedgerow near a farm that looked interesting. There were some with a pinkish blush and these semi-russeted ones.

It's not far from our house but the soil is redder and sandier (ours is valley clay) and the dry stone walls are Cotswold stone, rather than our ironstone, and a different style. The stones are bigger in our walls, and we don't have these narrow upright stones on top.

We left the bridleway and walked a short distance through a copse and back past more farms.

Finishing at the brewery! A well deserved pint (and a sandwich but we ate that before I could take a photo!)

The brewery itself is an amazing building, a Victorian tower brewery, that's still owned by the family of the founder.

The stones were full of fossils

Mabel can famously make herself comfortable anywhere, even on gravel, but was glad to get home for a snooze.