DISTANCE 5.5 miles / 8.9km approximately
Lambourn and Upper Lambourn are peaceful working villages where individual and strings of racehorses are ridden throughout the day and particularly before 13:00. Please take great care when horses are about. Horses can be spooked by sudden movements, domestic animals and loud noises. Please do not endanger the horse, the rider and yourself.
Please follow the Countryside Code to keep you, your dog, farm animals and the countryside safe. Respect other people, Protect the natural environment, Enjoy the outdoors.
For dog walkers there is special advice available from Countryside Online.
Thank you to Anita Morton, Oliver Steed, Virginia Dreyer for researching this walk. If you have any suggestions or comments regarding this walk please add a comment using the form at the end of this page.
POINTS OF INTEREST
- Wild flower meadow
- Watts Bank Nature Reserve – Flower filled chalk grassland full of wild flowers and butterflies in late spring, summer and autumn.
- Superb views of the Eastbury Downs and Lambourn nestled in the Lambourn Valley.
- The pretty little village of Eastbury, which has many buildings of historic interest.
- The Plough at Eastbury, (where you could stop for refreshments!)
- The Lambourn River, a seasonal chalk stream.
The Walk:
A lovely walk with much variety and interest. This walk goes up (and down) several hills and can be slippery underfoot after rain.
Directions are from the free car park behind the Lambourn Universal Stores in the High Street.
Turn right onto the High St from the car park walking in the direction of Hungerford. Take the path on the left just past the first road on the left, Edwards Hill, with August House on the corner. Continue along the path up the hill. When you reach the road turn right, the Lambourn Primary School will be on your left. Continue along the road, keeping left at the fork in the road.
The road narrows into a track between hedges. After approximately 1km from the school and close to the summit of the hill pause to admire the wildflower meadow on the right, which is filled with wild flowers, including orchids, in the summer. As you continue along the track, now downhill, Watts Bank Nature Reserve will be on your left.
At the bottom of the hill, just over 1.5km from the school, there is a four-way signpost with a stile on your right and a gate on your left with the track continuing ahead. Turn left through the gate and cross the field, heading for the gates on the opposite side. Once through the gate turn right onto a byway.
Take the left-hand fork past Cleeve Cottage and continue up the hill through the wood. Once through the wood and on the summit of the hill you will notice gates on either side of the path. Go through the gate on the left along a wide grassy path with fields on either side. You will cross a substantial track into a small field and then into a wood (Great Park Wood). Shortly after passing a track on your left turn left onto a narrow, signposted footpath, just before three large conifers. Continue through the wood, carpeted with bluebells in April/May, until the wood ends, and the path is truncated by a hedge dividing fields either side. Follow the grassy track on your right to the summit of the hill (Shrags Hill).
The landscape opens up with wonderful views of the Eastbury Downs, with Eastbury in the valley directly below and Lambourn to the left.
Follow the hedge down the hill, skirting the top of a wood. Here you can either enter the wood on your left (there are three paths into the wood) or you can keep the wood on your left and continue down the hill to the final entry point of the wood, just before a wooden fence.
Turn right onto the path through the wood and continue down the hill, over a stile through a horse paddock, over a second stile, following the path between the houses. You are now in Eastbury! Turn left onto the road, keeping the River Lambourn on your right.
Follow the road across the bridge – The Plough will be on your right. Turn left along the main road to Lambourn, turning right almost immediately into a lane between Montague House and Chestnuts. After a short distance turn left in front of a barn onto the signposted Lambourn Valley Way.
Continue to Lambourn, returning to the High Street either via Bockhampton Rd on your left or keeping on Newbury Road.
