Tipner Lake Defences
Back in October 2019 they complete works on the Tipner Lake Defences in Portsmouth, for a long period that stretch was completely closed off to the public, for obvious reasons. After it opened I began to walk the northern part of it as an extension to my Hilsea Lines walk, although I’ve never actually walked the length of it. Today I decided to have a little look.
In total the walk is roughly 1.2 miles from one end to the other, and although it doesn’t offer the same views as walking through the New Forest, or even up on the hill, it’s still quite a pleasant walk (and quite popular, making it a bit awkward during lockdown).
As you continue along the path you can see Portsea Castle under the bridge, which is an okay view, unfortunately the photo didn’t come out very well with my phone. However, near the end I was greeted with a nice reminder when I turned around and saw Portsdown Hill in the distance, the walk I had done the week before. Also, a boat, which I had to take a photo of because…
I made my way back but as I’d made good time in getting there and back I deviated off the coastal path and up on to the Hilsea Lines. It was lovely walking along this path, looking out over the water, field, dirt bike track (I have no idea what you call it), but most pleasing was how the light was coming in between the trees, it was very pretty.
Then further on in Foxes Forest I made a detour to avoid a family who had decided to walk side by side blocking the whole path, and ended up in a little bit of woods which was quite spectacular. It felt like I’d entered the Forest of Bere, while being inside a city.
On a whole it was just under 4.5 miles and made for a nice exploration of the local area, visiting places on my doorstep that I’d never been to before. I would like to use this path in the future and attempt to walk the entire coast of Portsmouth. It will be very different to walking South Downs as I expect the vast majority of it will be walking on pavement, but it would be nice to say I’ve done it.
