Richard’s blog…

The Rathfinny Trail has been undergoing some minor alterations to enhance the visitor experience.

The whole ethos behind the Trail is that visitors to the area can travel along the already well established rights of way network which includes many bridleways and footpaths which crisscross the Estate and then join the Rathfinny Trail. The Trail connects to three bridleways, two pieces of Open Access land and one footpath.

The Trail is a permissive footpath which is predominately open through out the year and will only be closed with prior notice for vineyard management work. The Trail allows the walker to view our vines, pass the Flint Barns and alongside our chalk grassland bank which we are currently managing back towards its full potential.

Pinot Noir
The walker will be able to view Pinot noir
Purple Flower
The walker will be able to view Phyteuma

The Pinot noir grape is an extremely important element of our sparkling wines and will also be providing us with some colour to form our sparkling rosé. Phytuema orbiculare is the scientific name for the Round headed rampion which is also know as the Pride of Sussex. A vibrant purple flower found on our chalk grassland bank below the Flint Barns.

We are in the process of installing some information boards around the Trail to provide different information at each location. On each board there is a small section for regular up dates on the vineyard and what wildlife is about at that time.

Woman Leaning on a Gate
The Rathfinny Trail

This is just below the Flint Barns (you can see the apex of the roof at the top) – I won’t tell you where the others are, so you can come and see for yourself!

To the right of the panel is our new piece of Trail technology – a talking post. By pressing the buttons you can listen to the dulcet tones of Cam and myself providing an introduction to the vineyard and the wildlife on the Estate. These too will be updated regularly. The talking posts are a new venture for us and we would really welcome constructive criticism from users of the Rathfinny Trail.  So please feel free to contact us with your thoughts and comments on these posts.

The talking posts will not stop me updating my wildlife sightings on this website or my usual mutterings on twitter.

Further News

Previous

Rathfinny

Terrior and hamsex

Next

Cellar

Summer Cleaning