An Iron Age hill fort, pretty coombes, and lots of ascent: the Vale of Wardour and West Wiltshire Downs AONB with views to the Cranborne Chase AONB and all the way to the coast
Length | 26.0 km (16.2 mi), of which 3.5 km (2.2 mi) on tarmac or concrete |
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Toughness | 10 out of 10 |
Features |
This walk heads south from the Vale of Wardour through the southerly parts of the West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is spectacular walking country with some breathtaking views. The walk reaches the hilltop boundary with the Cranborne Chase AONB (with views all the way to the coast, around Bournemouth and Poole). You’ll find picturesque villages and atmospheric pubs in the beautiful undulating countryside, as well as a wooded Iron Age hill fort site and plenty of dry chalky U-shaped downland valleys.
As the former recommended lunch pub, The Crown Inn in Alvediston, has been shut for a while and currently operates as a seasonal tea room only, on the full walk your pub lunch options are: the very early Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe, an earlier train (or doing the walk in reverse) to reach The Horseshoe Inn in Ebbesbourne Wake in time for food service.
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Walk Options | A Shortcut around lunch reduces the walk by 5.0 km (3.1 mi) and the ascent/descent by 146m.
This reduces the effort to 8/10.
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Travel |
Tisbury Station is on the London Waterloo to Exeter St. Davids West of England Main Line. Journey times are 106 minutes Monday to Saturday (hourly) and 114 minutes on Sunday (hourly). |
Lunch |
The Royal Oak Swallowcliffe, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP3 5PA (01747 870 211). The Royal Oak is located 4.5 km (2.8 mi) into the walk.
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Tea | Plenty of options in Tisbury. See the Walk Directions pdf for details. |
Profile | |
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Help Us! |
After the walk, we would love to get your feedback You can upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:
swcwalks
swcwalk250
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By Train |
Out (not a train station) Back (not a train station) |
By Car |
Start SP3 6JT Map Directions |
Amazon | |
Help |
National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Travelline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234 |
Version |
Sep-20 Thomas G |
Copyright | © Saturday Walkers Club. All Rights Reserved. No commercial use. No copying. No derivatives. Free with attribution for one time non-commercial use only. www.walkingclub.org.uk/site/license.shtml |
Walk Directions
Full directions for this walk are in a PDF file (link above) which you can print, or download on to a Kindle, tablet, or smartphone.
This is just the introduction. This walk's detailed directions are in a PDF available from wwww.walkingclub.org.uk