Outdoor Ramblings

As much as I love the Lakes and the high fells, living as we do for the time being in the South and making the most of the area, I also have a real soft spot for the chalk uplands that characterise great swathes of Oxfordshire and which are fortunately within a 10 mile radius of home in North Berkshire.

The huge sweeping landscapes, big skies, skylarks singing in the summer and lots of ancient hillforts, longbarrows and burial mounds make for some really interesting walks. There are a number of long distance paths and in a walk last weekend in beautiful sunshine, we touched on three of them in a six mile circular route; the Swan's Way, the Icknield Way and the Chiltern Way.

The Swan's Way is a long distance bridleway (and we did meet lots of riders that day) that runs from Salcey Forsest in Northamptonshire, through Buckinghamshire and ends at Goring on Thames in Oxfordshire - a distance of 65 miles.

The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway that starts in Norfolk and includes the Berkshire Downs, the Chilterns and ends in Wiltshire.

The Chiltern Way is a 125 mile circuit taking in the Chilterns from north to south; from Ewelme in the south west to Chorleywood in the south east and the wonderfully named Sharpenhoe Clappers and Great Offley in the north east.

It really is a beautiful, pastoral landscape, with a palpable feeling of antiquity.

jerome k jerome’s grave in st mary’s churchyard

We decided to have a couple of nights away to break up the month and we plumped for Wiltshire. It was really a case of looking for a decent, dog friendly hotel and The Moonraker Hotel between Bradford on Avon and Trowbridge had some good reviews, wasn't too far to drive and so sounded like an interesting option.

We love Wiltshire; great open, sweeping chalkland landscapes that have a palpable air of age and antiquity because of such historical sites as The Ridgeway, Silbury Hill, Avebury, Stonehenge of course, and numerous hillforts, longbarrows, white horses, stone circles and earthworks. There are also some beautiful towns; Salisbury, Marlborough, Chippenham and Devizes and numerous picture postcard villages.

The Moonraker Hotel, (nothing to do with Bond) was named after a group of local smugglers trying to avoid import duties on spirits by hiding barrels of contraband in church crypts or village ponds and who, one moonlit night, were caught trying to get those barrels out of a pond. Pointing to the moon reflected in the water, they told the officials they were trying to rake in wheels of cheese and they were believed although the officials did think the smugglers were just simple local folk...!!

The hotel was lovely and very comfortable, with the dog friendly rooms in a little separate courtyard area on the ground floor which was very convenient for late night walks.

That afternoon, we walked from the hotel down to the Kennet and Avon canal and along the towpath to Bradfield on Avon's wharf which was pretty, busy and bustling. We stopped for a while watching the boats and barges from a pretty, tiny tea shop garden right by the water. A little further along the path brings you to a 14th century tithe barn which was just magnificent and there were little cafes and shops surrounding it as well as a lovely park. A circular route down wooded lanes, across fields and through a narrowboat marina brought us neatly back to the hotel again.

The following morning, after spying a white horse on a hill from the bedroom window, we drove to Bratton Downs. You can drive right up to the top and there are miles of walks to choose from starting from the car park. We had a walk round the 2000 year old earthworks and the Westbury White Horse enjoying the stunning views all around us.

We then drove back into Bradford on Avon for coffee and then lunch, but we also had a wander and found the tiny St Laurence Church, one of the only surviving, and most complete, Saxon churches dating from around 700 AD. We admired the Bridge Tea Rooms dating from 1502 and crossed the Town Bridge which was originally a packhorse bridge and has a curious building in the middle of it which was a tiny jail; it has a fish on the top of the weathervane, so if you were locked up, you were said locally to be ‘under the fish and over the water’.

On the last morning, we drifted slowly home via Lacock, a beautiful National Trust village which is always used in period dramas as it's totally unspoilt by streetlights or overhead power lines. Lacock Abbey and its large tithe barn dominate the centre of the village. We also made a stop at Avebury although we’ve been many times, but it’s such a pretty village and has the largest stone circle in Europe, forming part of a huge neolithic complex including the mysterious Silbury Hill; in fact, there are longbarrows and burial sites all around this area.

It's certainly an area we'll go back to and explore as Wiltshire has so much to offer that is unique and unspoilt, and all against a landscape that's rich in history over the millennia.

lacock abbey’s cloisters - harry potter was filmed here

‘The greatest adventure is what lies ahead’

A walk in the chalk

Wiltshire Weekend