Length: 27.8 km/17.3 mi
Ascent/Descent: 208m
Net Walking Time: ca. 6 hours
Toughness: 5 out of 10
For Medium, Short and Ultra Short Walks see the webpage or the pdf.
Take the 09.32 Cheltenham Spa train from Paddington (09.58
Reading), arriving Kemble at 10.41.
Return trains: xx.49 to 20.49, then 21.51 and 22.15.
Splitting the ticket is the cheapest option if travelling on a Network Railcard
(buy separate London – Didcot Parkway [with Network RC discount] and Didcot -
Kemble [without a discount] returns).
This Gloucestershire walk at the southern edge of the Cotswolds AONB
explores the springs and wells forming the source of the River Thames
and a longer stretch of the upper river, as well as some of the woods of the
large Bathurst Estate
and Cirencester Park and Town, the ‘Capital of the Cotswolds’.
After passing an assortment of springs and wells that constitute the
start of the Thames and an Iron Age hillfort site right by the highest of the
springs, you follow the disused Thames & Severn Canal to the Sapperton
Canal Tunnel, before rising through Hailey Wood up to the
watershed to the Severn Catchment Area and to Sapperton village, on the
edge of the Golden Valley and with a splendid old church.
Climb over the highest point of the walk and enter the magnificent Cirencester
Park, one of the greatest privately owned parks of the 18th
century, with its splendid vistas, romantic follies, statues and woods. On into
Cirencester for tea (or lunch on the short options of the route), once
one of the most substantial cities of Roman-era Britain, now a bustling market
town and considered the Capital of the Cotswolds, with its many
independent shops, beautiful Georgian and Victorian buildings, alleyways
and courtyards as well as some Roman ruins, most interestingly the Amphitheatre
(at the time the second largest in Britain and now one of the best preserved).
The short return to Kemble leads through quiet fields, along woods and
through the picturesque village of Ewen, before another stretch along the Upper
Thames.
Three principle shorter versions are described and buses add additional
options to cut bits of the route. See the webpage or the pdf for details.
Notes:
The Upper Thames is a
winterbourne river, only fed from aquifers and without tributaries in
the area walked. In long dry periods it can be completely dry.
Cirencester Park is open to the
walking public daily 08.00-17.00 (sharp!).
Lunch: The Bell at Sapperton.
(food to 16.00, 9.1 km (5.7 mi) into the main walk, booking recommended at
weekends!).
On the Medium and
Short Walks, all Cirencester Tea Stops become Lunch
Stops, from 13.1 km and 10.2 km into the walk respectively.
Tea: Hot drinks and snacks in Cirencester Park, plus plenty of options in
Cirencester, for details check the pdf. The Tavern Inn
in Kemble. Located just past the station. An Arkell’s of Swindon pub.
For route map, gpx/kml file, photos and pdf directions click here. T=swc.256
Stargazer is away
2 comments:
August Bank Holiday Weekend is when the Reading Festival takes place, so the train was quite rammed to Reading and not much better afterwards, teeming with people fleeing the Capital for the delights of the West Country. Not a great problem of course, as the journey time is only 70 minutes. Rain was forecast for much of the day and it was certainly raining when we arrived, so waterproofs were added to the autumnal gear we were already wearing (highs of 15 degrees).
It was always unlikely that the Upper Thames would have any water in it after recent relatively dry weeks, and so it was: bone dry when we first met it; the Lyd Well: dry; the meadows to the Thames Head: dry; the Thames Head: dry. Shockingly, some imbeciles had broken off the fingerposts there (the ones showing the distance to the end of the Thames Path in Woolwich and the distance to the mouth of the river) with such brute force that the post had split into two! The State of Humanity and all that...
On along the Thames & Severn Canal to the Sapperton Tunnel and up through the dripping woods (it had been on-and-off showers so far) to Sapperton for lunch. We hade had 2 bookings for 2 each an hour apart (all they had available) but they put us onto adjacent tables and as usual that was free immediately. A terrific lunch in a terrific pub ensued, and afterwards the weather had improved to sun-and-rain interchanging. Cirencester Park was great, as usual, and tea and ice cream were aquired at the Beano in the Park before we strolled through the tourist masses that were frequenting the narrow alleyways and olden streets.
On to the Roman Amphitheatre and thence through the (slightly boring admittedly) suburbia and along field boundaries via Ewen back to the Thames. There finally was some water in the river and (judging by the high grass tied around tree branches and stumps) there had been up to a metre worth of flow quite recently.
18.49 train with minutes to spare, after having just missed a steam train departing that had re-watered at Kemble (we saw the steam column from the end of teh car park).
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