Ashley Falls Offers A Lot to Explore

By David Beers

The beaten path is Route 7. If you are heading north on Route 7 from North Canaan, just past the Connecticut police barracks, there is a road that veers left at a slight angle. This is Ashley Falls Road (Route 7A), and if you take it, you are off the beaten path and on your way to Ashley Falls, Mass.

Ashley Falls is a hamlet within the Town of Sheffield that lies only a half mile north of Connecticut and a half mile west of Route 7. Near the center of town, the Konkapot River flows over an impressive set of falls, the namesake of the town and a power source in a bygone era. There is a slight pull-off on the west side of the road just south of where Route 7A crosses over the river. From here, a faint path leads to a roadside rocky promontory that overlooks the falls. A half mile west of the falls the Konkapot River joins with the Housatonic River.

The town was purchased from Chief Konkapot of the Stockbridge tribe in 1724. An economy of dairy farming, marble/limestone mining and milling grew in this area, and farming of the deep rich floodplain soils is still active today. Just a stone’s throw north of the falls is the town center, where Route 7A crosses East Main Street at the post office. In front of the post office is a triangular town green with a National Historic District sign. 

 Surrounding the post office is a tightly knit residential area of crisscrossed streets. Some of the original storefronts are now residences of what was once a much more commercially active town, supported 100 years ago by a downtown railroad station. A sawmill just north of town, called Berkshire Products, has the largest selection of unique wood slabs and burls in the country. 

From the post office, head directly west a half mile over the Housatonic River and then immediately bear left and you are at Bartholomew’s Cobble, owned by the Trustees of Reservations. Folded and twisted quartzite and marble form rocky knolls (cobbles) along the west shore of the Housatonic River. The more than 800 plant species make this a National Natural Landmark. This site has North America’s greatest diversity of ferns. There is a visitor center and a hiker parking lot giving access to five miles of trails on 329 acres. The center offers summer educational programing and displays. 

Bartholomew’s Cobble is one of the best places around to experience the spring woodland wildflowers that do all their growing and blooming before overhead trees leaf out and shade the ground—aka spring ephemerals. They emerge when the early spring sunlight warms the forest floor in late April and early May. A bit later in June, the same trails that were carpeted with colorful ephemeral blooms in May will be oceans of green ferns. I recommend taking the Craggy Knoll Trail over the top of the Cobble and then heading south on the Bailey Trail along the river to the tallest cottonwood tree in the state at 125 feet. The tree has an interior cavity at its base that is large enough for a person to live in. 

Colonel John Ashley was one of the initial settlers here in the early 1700s, and his saltbox farmhouse is on the Cobble property. While it is a private residence, owned by the Trustees, you are welcome to check it out from the hiking trail. The town and the falls are, of course, named after the colonel’s family.

North on Silver Street, about halfway to Sheffield, is the Lime Kiln Farm trailhead. This Mass Audubon property has parking and an interpretive sign explaining the history of lime production at the farm. There are both the remains of limestone quarry pits and what is left of a lime kiln. Over a century ago, the kiln was used to heat limestone into quicklime (calcium oxide), which is used in agriculture, metallurgy and cement. The multistory remains of the kiln are quite impressive. Hike the one-mile Lime Kiln Loop trail to get there. You can see spectacular views of the Taconic Mountains to the west from the trail.

For most Route 7 travelers, Ashley Falls is a mostly unknown wayside. That is unfortunate. There is a lot to explore in this quite hamlet of Sheffield.