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Prospect Hill, Down Brook, and Bull Run
[A-B]
Detail Map (50k)
Locus Map (60k)
Size: 486 acres
Location: Prospect Hill off Route 133 in Rowley through Town of Ipswich conserved land to Mile Lane and Linebrook Road near Doyon School. 2.5 miles.
Parking: Room for several cars at base of trail on left-hand side of Rte. 133/Haverhill Street 0.5 mile west of junction with Rte. 1A, and also at the parking lot for the athletic fields at Mile Lane, and at the Doyon School parking lot.
Permitted: Hiking, horseback riding and mountain bikes except when trails are extremely wet, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in season.
Hours: Dawn to dusk.
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History
Prospect Hill encompasses a 90-acre parcel which was acquired by the Department of Environmental Management in 1995.
The hill, long a valuable resource for Rowley, served in earlier times as a common pasture for villagers and more recently as a small, family-oriented ski area which operated with a rope tow from 1948 to the mid-seventies. Like most of the lands in this area, the present forest was previously cleared for farmland and left to grow over when the migration to the midwest took place in the 1800s.
The Town of Ipswich has continued to purchase land in the area, contingent to Prospect Hill, to protect the watershed of the Dow Brook and Bull Brook reservoirs. These two impoundments are the major source of drinking water for Ipswich. The many stone walls that run alongside the trails remind the hiker of past owners and usage.
Natural Features
Prospect Hill is a glacially formed drumlin that lies to the southwest of Rowley’s town center. It rises 267 feet above sea level and from its summit, it provides a spectacular view of Rowley and beyond, including thousands of acres of salt marsh, Plum Island, Cape Ann, the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire, and Mt. Agamenticus in Maine.
The hill forms a division between three distinct watersheds: the northwestern and northeastern slopes drain to Bachelder Brook and to Ox Pasture Brook and thence respectively to the Rowley and Parker Rivers; the southeastern slope of the hill drains into Dow Brook and the Dow Brook reservoir.
The flora varies from recently overgrown fields to relatively mature oak and pine forests with a variety of ferns and forest floor mosses. There are wetlands and streams, with a long upland ridge separating Bull Brook and Dow Brook.
Many trails intersect with the Bay Circuit Trail, which is marked with the white dollar bill size blazes and occasional Bay Circuit signs. If you choose to explore any of these other trails, leave “memory stones” or bent twigs so that you can retrace your route. You will find many of these trails on the accompanying map which has been redone for this revised edition.
Bay Circuit Route
The trail begins in Rowley.
- From the parking space off Rte. 133, you have two options: follow the dirt road bearing left around the base until you reach the old ski run on the right; climb up this marked trail to the four corner junction and turn left; or, if you prefer to avoid the rather steep climb, continue on the dirt road around the base and join up with the trail on the eastern side of the hill. If you choose the upland trail, follow the trail blazes and descend, generally southeast, around the side of Prospect Hill until the trail crosses a stone wall and enters Ipswich.
- Follow the trail blazes to the Dow Brook, which is crossed on a well-made board bridge.
- Pass under the power lines and enter a white pine forest. Note double blazes which indicate a fork in the trail.
- At the fork shortly past an abandoned car bear right. You have hiked about 1.5 miles.
- In approximately 1/2 mile a dirt road to the left leads to the Ipswich water treatment facility. Continue straight 130 yards and cross a wooden bridge with a good view of the Bull Brook Reservoir on both sides.
- The trail turns right at the next junction and becomes a forest road through recently overgrown brush and woodland.
- Skirt the town playing fields to reach Mile Lane. There is a parking lot by the fields where you may leave your car. Walk to the right on Mile Lane, cross Linebrook Road and continue to the right (south) to Pineswamp Road (adjacent to Doyon School).
