Length: 30.4 km (18.9 mi)
Ascent/Descent:
494/436 m
Net
Walking Time: ca. 7 hours
Toughness:
9 out of 10
or
start
from Bratton or Edington, and/or finish in Heytesbury,
from as little as 16.5 km/10.3 mi (rated 3/10)
[due to the buses not running on Sundays, these
options require a taxi journey today]
Take
the 09.00 Penzance train from Paddington (09.34 Reading, 09.49
Newbury), arriving Westbury at 10.22.
Return
trains:
fast walkers may get the 17.44 from Warminster, but realistically the 18.23
or subsequent trains are the most likely return trains.
Ticketing is somewhat complicated, as both stations are
outside the Network Southeast area, here are the options, ranked by expense:
(A) Cheapest will be Advance Tickets (currently £25.50 for the outbound train from
Paddington and £14.20 for the 18.23 return to Waterloo, at full price, lower still
with Railcards).
(B) Split Tickets (London-Newbury return
+ Newbury-Warminster return) are an option, but you will have to travel back via
Westbury to Paddington, and on a train that stops at Newbury! The Network Railcard
is valid to Newbury. The same logic applies to tickets split at Reading.
(C) GWR-only Off-Peak
Warminster Return -
you have to return to Paddington
(and change at Westbury or Swindon).
(D) Off-Peak
Warminster Return -
valid on all returns into Waterloo and Paddington.
“Little
Imber on the Downe, 7 miles from any towne.”
Bookended
by indifferent, tarmac-heavy urban stretches through Westbury and Warminster,
this walk is a fascinating journey across the Imber Live Firing Range on Salisbury Plain, an accidental wilderness due to having been MoD
property since 1898, and out-of-bounds
for most of the year, apart from short stand downs over Christmas and
Easter and for some days in August (most years). Imber village itself was
abandoned in 1943 at five weeks’ notice to be used for training house-to-house
combat in preparation for the invasion of Continental Europe and is one of the
most haunting and evocative places
visited on any SWC walk. Imber Church
will be open 11.00-15.30 hours today.
Either
side of the Plain the route conquers five
hills, three of which with notable remnants of Iron Age hillfort sites: Bratton Camp,
Scratchbury Camp and Battlesbury Camp, and also passes Wiltshire’s largest White Horse, at Westbury. You get superb views across Salisbury Plain and of the surrounding
countryside of Wiltshire and Somerset.
Shorter walks, starting from Bratton or Edington, or finishing
in Heytesbury, involve short taxi
journeys, due to the buses not running on Sundays.
Note 1: Before embarking on this walk, please read the chapters
on Public Safety and Access Rights on
Salisbury Plain/Imber Range and on General
Health & Safety Rules for military
areas and ranges on page 2 in
the walk directions pdf.
Note 2:
These rare Open Days on the Imber Range are very popular; we may be the only
walkers in Imber when we get there, but there will be lots of other people
coming by car or bike. Please stay out of the cordoned off areas, even if
others don’t! The MOD have threatened to stop Open Days completely if people
keep straying into those areas.
For
the tea options in Heytesbury and
Warminster check page 2 of the walk directions. T=swc.286
For
the walk directions, a map, a height profile, gpx/kml
files and photos click here.
6 comments:
For those of a more spontaneous nature who did not book advance tickets....I will flag that we can use groupsave tickets on these trains....with a savings of 34%, it makes the return to Warminster roughly 37 pounds...We can take any of the return trains on offer (as long as "our group" takes the same one)….I plan to be at the Paddington ticket office or in the ticket line at 8:40 AM on Sunday for anyone interested in buying a groupsave together (we need 3 minimum)….
I'll be coming along on this walk and hope to join in the group saver ticket group.
Great! See you at the ticket office...
The forecast was spot on: the morning rain had stopped when we stepped off the train, the rest of the day was either sunny or overcast, until we had half an hour of on-and-off rain near the end. The train was (of course) delayed and the decision by the MOD to only allow 4 Open Days this year meant that Imber and the roads/tracks leading to it were much busier than in past years. (Imber is now offering an audioguided tour as well...!]
The morning rain and subsequent strong-ish winds meant that the far views were superb today, so much so that for the first time over the various recce and group walks I have done, from the White Horse Hill above Westbury I could see the ridge on the other side of the Vale of Pewsey in full detail: Tan Hill/Milk Hill, Alton Barnes White Horse, Pewsey Downs to Martinsell Hill...
Some felt that the long tracks and some tarmac on the Plain en route and away from Imber were too long for comfort, but - it is what it is, and the beauty of hills, coombes, ridges and hillfort sites either side of the Plain surely made up for any hardship? On the Plain: plenty of wildflowers, poppies, flowering thistles...
The front 4 got to Warminster with time to spare for a swift one at The Old Bell Inn, the others went straight to the station, all making the 18.23 to W'loo.
3 with Advance Tickets, 4 on the GroupSave Ticket, 1 other with an Advance missed the train (that much we know), but we don't know what she did next, so n=7, w=half-sunny-half-overcast-with-some-rain
The one who missed the train by 10 minutes ended up at Westbury at 13.00, just 2 hours 40 minutes later than the rest of the group. Sunday travel. She did the full walk with all the extensions and amazing views, got drenched after failing to visit Imber Church (closed for a concert) but was rewarded with some lovely evening sunshine on the last three hills. Home at 23.30.
N=8
Post a Comment