Boyne Water

A Saturday stomp around Brown Clee taking a slightly different from our last visit which was ever rather fun. We parked as usual at Nordy Bank a truly majestic hill fort but headed around the flank of the hill before heading up a steep and part path part stream track to the charmingly named "Toot" from here we were on the spine of Brown Clee until we stopped at the exquisite Boyne Water on top the hill surrounded by a mix of ancient and farmed woodland.

Clee Hill and Boyne water itself has had an interesting history with aircraft

"Whilst the radar facilities of the Clee Hills protect aircraft, both hills were once a hazard to aircraft, and a memorial, unveiled on Good Friday in 1981, commemorates the 23 Allied and German airmen killed here when their planes crashed into Brown Clee during World War II, in addition to those of a Jet Provost which crashed on the hill in 1969. The first aircraft to crash into Brown Clee was a German Junkers Ju 88, on 1 April 1941. Two Wellington Bombers, a Hawker Typhoon and at least two Avro Ansons also crashed here. It is now thought that there were more wartime crashes on Brown Clee than any other hill in Britain.[6] The engine and other parts of one of the Wellington Bombers are said to rest on the bottom of Boyne Water, Brown Clee"

No sign of anything like that today we enjoyed a coffee before heading around to the summit past a football pitches worth of bog cotton before the last ascent to Clee Burf. From here it was just a few downhill km back to the car by the hill fort