Scopwick Circular Walk

Before you begin the walk, it is worth visiting the cemetery on Vicarage Lane (just alongside parking area). Go through the lychgate to enter the War Graves Cemetery. At the far end is the white Cross of Sacrifice. Personnel from nearby RAF Digby who have been killed in action are buried here. During World War II many New Zealand and Canadian Air Force personnel were stationed at Digby and their graves predominate, and there are also five German aircrew buried here. One of those buried here is John Magee, a Canadian officer who wrote the poem High Flight. This was quoted by US President Ronald Reagan in the context of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. Magee was educated at Rugby School where he won the coveted poetry prize and was killed in a flying accident while stationed at RAF Wellingore in December 1941, aged just 19. When you have finished at the cemetery, exit via the lychgate and turn left along Vicarage Lane, passing the parking area and recreation ground on your left. Where the tarmac lane ends, keep ahead on the grass and, after about 40 metres, you will come to a junction of grass tracks with a fingerpost on your left. Turn left here to join the wide grass avenue, signed as a restricted byway. The grass avenue leads you to the next fingerpost, with a wide hedge gap into a crop field ahead. Do NOT take this gap, instead turn right to follow the grass track restricted byway between hedgerows (marked with a No Motor Vehicles Allowed sign). This track is the start of the old lane known as Trundle Lane.

Follow the grass track called Trundle Lane ahead, keeping your eyes peeled for the plentiful wildlife that inhabits the dense hedgerows each side. About half way along, you will come to a carved wooden sculpture on your right, known as The Seated Lady. The sculpture was created at part of North Kesteven District Council's New Milestones Scheme. It was carved by Rosie Bradshaw and represents a tree spirit or Dryad. Simply continue along Trundle Lane and, further along, the grass track becomes a stone-covered farm track. At the end of Trundle Lane, you will come to a T-junction with the farm road known as Acre Lane.

Turn left at this T-junction, staying with the main farm track which is signed as a public bridleway. After about 300 metres (where the main track swings right), you will reach the next fingerpost. Do NOT follow the farm track, instead go straight ahead on the grass field margin, signed as a public bridleway. In the field corner, go ahead through the wide hedge gap and you will emerge to a junction of grass tracks at the start of Trundle Lane (which you should recognise from the outward leg). From this point you will be retracing your steps back to the parking area. Go ahead along the wide grass avenue and, at the end of this, turn right to join Vicarage Lane. You will come to the parking area on your right, where the walk began.

Turn left along Acre Lane, taking care of any occasional access traffic. You will see the next fingerpost on your left. Turn left here to join the farm track signed as a public bridleway. Follow this farm track ahead for some distance, ignoring the footpath signed off to the right at the first intersecting hedge line. The track leads you between arable fields, but the village name suggests a different past. The name Scopwick means Sheep Farm in Old English. The village lies alongside an old drove road which once connected the wool trading centre at Kirkstead Abbey to Welbourn on Lincoln Cliff. After around a mile you will reach a fingerpost ahead, marking a T-junction of paths. (There is a pair of metal gates to your right here, whilst the main farm track swings to the left at this point.)