Length:
25.1 km (15.6 mi) [shorter and longer options possible]
Ascent:
322 m
Net
Walking Time: ca. 5 ½ hours
Toughness:
5 out of 10
Take
the 09.20
Salisbury train from Waterloo (09.27 Clapham J., 09.46 Woking), arriving at 10.42.
Meet outside the station building in the car park, to the right as you come out.
Return buses from Amesbury (outside Library) to Salisbury Blue Boar Row
(from 19 mins journey time): Lines 8, X4 and X5, between them with 5 buses per
hour in the relevant time window.
Return
trains from Salisbury:
xx.21 and xx.47 to 19.21, then 20.26, 20.53, 21.26 and 22.26.
This superb walk has no major climbs but covers beautiful rolling countryside
and farmland and fields of golden barley and wheat. You then have an evocative
and magical approach to Stonehenge across Salisbury Plain. After passing close
to the site the route takes you down the original approach used by the Druids –
The Avenue – as you set off on the final leg to Amesbury and a bus back to
Salisbury city centre. There is a lot to see on this walk and what you choose
to do depends very much on your interests and how far you want to walk or
travel. You get excellent views
of Old
Sarum hill fort and of Stonehenge
from the walk route. The ancient city of Salisbury has a fascinating
history and the Visit
Wiltshire website provides information about it. If you wish to visit Salisbury Cathedral this is
slightly off route.
Lunch:
The Wheatsheaf
Inn in
Lower Woodford (10.2 km/6.4 mi, food all day) or The
Bridge Inn in Upper Woodford (13.0 km/8.1 mi, food to 14.30, pizza
all day). The Black Horse in Great
Durnford (15 km/9.3 mi) is off-route and does not do food at the moment, as
it’s closed and for sale!
Tea: Pubs in Amesbury and
plenty of cafés and pubs in Salisbury at the central square on Blue Boar Row and
on Station Road.
For
walk directions
and all options to shorten or lengthen the walk, a map, a height profile, gpx/kml
files, and photos click here. T=swc.67
2 comments:
10 assembled at the station exit in Salisbury, some wondering where their expected "walk leader" was...After a brief round of formalities, we set off on a w=perfect-sunny-spring-day for our journey into history. During our spin through Salisbury, only one made the slight diversion to the cathedral and later caught us up at Old Sarum where we also bumped into number n=11 who had taken an earlier train and enjoyed a morning coffee in Salisbury. We made the traditional circuit around the ramparts of Old Sarum to its cathedral's ruins then dropped down the "secret" passage to the outer ramparts and our onward journey....which took us through the magic door in the wall into the mystical world of camels, alpacas, lamas, donkeys, goats and ponies....a real menagerie.....of particular note was the rather content looking bactrian camel next to the path guarding the exit...On we traveled to the recommended lunch place which was busy with a sign warning of a 45 minute wait for food -- but this seems to have been a typo, as the food took about 45 seconds to appear...For the sake of SWC research (and to make up for not having any pub stops when this walk was last done in the height of covid June 2020), we stopped at the second pub for a mix of hot drinks, cold drinks, cakes and scones.....We concluded this pub would also make a very good recommended lunch stop and is located closer to the midway point of the walk....Had we not stopped at the first pub -- we would have arrived just before 2pm and were not walking particularly fast (so plenty of time to order during their lunch service which runs until 2.30 -- though they looked to still be serving food at 3pm)...it also stays open all afternoon and does not look very gastro with a nice variety of tasty looking meals with good portions...perhaps a pound or so more than the earlier pub -- but not overly pricey....Fully hydrated, we continued on to the ancient landscape of scattered tumuli...with the majestic stones themselves magically appearing in the distance at the crest of a small incline....On approaching the stones, some explored the permissive path which brings you slightly closer than the walk route and found in fact there is a gate a bit further on from the stones from where they could cut back to the route (though missing the walk down the Avenue -- they were about 100m parallel to it)....two continued the prehistoric journey to woodhenge while the remaining 5 (1 picnicker and 3 others had gone ahead) opted to return to present day Salisbury for a well earned drink and snack in a hostelry on the market square....the final 2 joined us here and we set off for the 8:26pm train, armed with a collection of supplies for an interesting and engaging "wine tasting session" -- a productive use of the train journey back to London....
A lovely day with four pubs and a need to balance life for the beer drinkers in SWC. Before we are seen as a Wino crowd.
The Wheatsheaf at Lower Woodford sold a good selection of Badger/Hall and Woodhouse beers and I enjoyed the bottled LEIP small batch brew which was an unfiltered New England IPA, hence the name. I enjoyed very much the coffee at The Bridge at Upper Woodford, which was immersion brewed so got nearly two cups out of. They had Doom Barrish stuff there and might have had an British owned beer on tap also, not sure.
Sadly, the Druids must have had all there pubs underground at Stonehenge, so not much apart from the greatness of walking there. You can pay £20 to get on a bus there, however miss out on so much.
Then back in Salisbury we tried the Haunch of Venison, dating from 1320. However, was not enough room for our crowd. So we went to the Ox Row Inn, a Fullers, on the market square. Where there were three ales, including HSB (Horndean Special Bitter), one of my absolute favourites. My mum used to feed me this as a child, as we lived a few miles from the Gales Brewery. How else could I love it so much. So I had three pints, including one on the train. And a lovely bottle of Betty Stoggs from Skinners, Truro. My mum bought me the tea shirt quite a while ago, no kidding.
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