Tuesday 18 August 2026 - Spunch Lyme Taster

This was a free of charge 'Taster' Spunch event, supported by the National Trust in Lyme Park.

Sue and I were joined by first timers Fechin, Richard and Jenny. The map was at 1:4000 scale rather than the usual 1:12500 scale, and there were only 45 Spunch satellite points compared with the usual 90 or so.

After coffees from the kiosk, the five of us went to see Michelle and Sue in the courtyard and soon everyone was set up with the MapRun app and ready to go past the starting flag.

In a reverse of my original plan, we started by going around the gardens, picking up many points on the way. The little red circles on the MapRun app were rapidly turning green.

We headed round the back of the pond and managed to visit all the satellite points in the garden by using just about every path available. Families and children were having a great time Spunching and I regretted not having the grandchildren with us. They would love it.

The satellite points had been set so as to encourage participants to go round the gardens before exiting through the way out clearly marked on the map.

By then, a light drizzle was falling.

The second half of the outing involved going up to 'The Cage', an Elizabethan hunting tower, and descending back to the Hall via an assortment of paths.

There was very little running - it was clear that walking pace in the beautiful scenery (despite the drizzle) would easily get us to all the relevant points in plenty of time.

It was breezy up at The Cage, and the ground was welcoming a bit of lubrication after months of drought.

Here's Fechin, on his first visit to Lyme Park, approaching The Cage.

My last photo of the day was taken as we strolled down from The Cage, picking off the remaining Spunch points and not forgetting point number 3, which could easily have been missed.

By the time we got back to base in about an hour and ten minutes, we had been to all the satellite points and like the majority of today's 130+ participants we had excelled, with maximum scores of 900 all round apart from Fechin, who had a bit of technical trouble with his app, but he did finish with the rest of us and get a perfect score.

Here's our track - 5km with just 100 metres ascent.

An extract from the results is given below. Click on the image for a better version and you might spot another of the 'Oldies', John Archer, who seems to have taken his time over this event. It's a shame he didn't join us.

After lunch and a chat at the café, and birthday wishes to Fechin - 77 today - we adjourned in the knowledge that this taster session had worked brilliantly, with all three 'first timers' hungry for more. The Spunch website gives details of forthcoming events, and those that Sue and I are booked on are shown on topwalks.com.

Edits and comments are welcome.