Walk through the Forest of Dean. Some hidden gems

So as the lockdown in the UK has started to lift slowly, we had our first week back at work from last Tuesday. We also decided to have a small drive to find somewhere to go for a walk today. We drove for approximately 10 minutes and found a part of the Forest of Dean, right on our doorstep, that we haven’t explored yet. We were only recently informed about this waterfall, and of its rough location, as one of my girlfriends friends posted about it on social media a while back. I thought a quick flick through google would give us a more detailed location, however this was not the case. I couldn’t find anything about it on any search engine, so we set off with nothing more than a vague idea of its whereabouts. Unfortunately we couldn’t park too close to where we wanted to be so it was a 15 mi ute walk to where we thought we needed to be. On the way we found a small bridge over a stream. We presumed that this was the stream in question, and that we were downstream of the fall, so we had something to track.

As we walked up stream we passed an old railway station just out of view, and followed what appeared to be the driveway of a house. As we gingerly walked down the front of an old cottage, and down towards their garage, we expected to encounter the owner, wondering why we were heading for their rear garden. But as we got to the bottom, we found the public footpath sign, and started to follow that. We came across a few other walkers and I am happy to say that social distancing is still a thing, and everyone kept the 6 feet distance when passing. As we traveled further we could hear the unmistakable noise of a heavy waterfall. From a distance we could see the fast moving water and as we got closer, the trees opened up and there it was.

It was a very interesting structure, and I was very unsure of what everything was for. It was apparent that we could walk around the back. As we started to circle around, there was an archway nestled in the all of the shrubbery.

We then found we were able to get behind the entire structure, and this archway really did baffle me. I guess it was some kind of flood relief system. The archway dropped off, and led into another channel.
We then managed to get in behind the waterfall, and i started to wonder how this structure is still standing. I have no idea how old all of this is, but it has managed to withstand the countless floods that we have in the Forrest each year.

We then carried on up the footpath not realising just how close we were to the Norchard railway. Which is where they host many steam rally’s. This is again, something that is on my doorstep that I know very little about.

After walking down the railway, and constantly thinking about the film, Stand by me, we headed home. A good walk, and found some hidden treasures. If the weather is all ok, we will be off to the brecon beacons, if the lockdown laws also allow.

Thank you for the interest.