From the sand ring, the only way up to the fields and garden area was by the side of the cemetery, up the ramp to the gate. This seemed a bit limited, so when Paul cleared the back of the sand ring area and we found the hidden wall that we did not know was there, we looked into the possibility of building a path through the mound and wood and directly into the orchard area behind. Step one was to clear the path through trees and undergrowth to see how this could work. After it was cleared from all of the plants and brambles we could see that it would take a little imagination to get this to work.
The view from the top of the mound looking down. Same view from the mound looking along the sand ring.
The mound is not a natural feature and came about by the previous owner of The Stables, selling off part of the land to the Cornish Council for expansion of the village school. When the building work started, for some reason we are not aware of, the builders were allowed to pile a lot of the soil excess to the build, behind the stone wall that ran down to the boundary, and hence the raising of the mound of soil that in the long run actually did us a favour, or do we say that because we always look on the bright side?
View of the mound wall from the sand ring. Looking towards the wooden steps up to the top of the mound.
We will have to do something with the area along the wall as it will run behind the chicken run when that project is addressed and maybe a walkway to the ramp and then steps up to the top? Time will tell. Getting back to the project, clearing the top of the ramp was just as hard as the ground was uneven and sown with tree roots and brambles, but eventually, the way was cleared and the building of the walkway could begin to allow access to the orchard. From the following photos, you get an idea of the drop-down to the orchard and the amount of work that was done.
Part of the passage walkway. The start of the passage from the orchard.
The build started with the staircase up from the sand ring to make it easy to get to the top of the mound which you can see in the first photo on this page. Once in place, the top of the mound was cleared which you can see above, strangely, there was a sudden drop down to the orchard level, so Paul decided to run a walkway over that as it would have taken a lot of earth to fill it. When the walkway was completed, we were just a small drop-down to the orchard level and at that point, Paul found some large stones which were perfect for using as stone steps. After some arranging, they were put into position and they now form part of the path which you can see below.
North end of the passage coming down to the orchard. The top part of the walkway leading to the sand ring.
It took a few weeks to complete this task but it has allowed us to have different access to the orchard and also provides more interest to the garden. The mound has also provided the orchard with extra wind protection from the South-west which is where the Atlantic ocean blows in from. All in all it was an interesting project to work upon and this is not the end of it as we shall extend this area in due course when most of the other works have been done.