Saturday Walk - POSTPONED DUE TO INSUFFICIENT TRAIN SERVICE: Tisbury Circular via Alvediston (Clockwise)

On Sunday evening, Nat Rail's route finder was still showing the normal Tisbury service, so - together with statements that from 6 July train services across Britain would go back to near normal - I took that as a green light for this walk. During Monday the real timetable got uploaded, and there is still no direct service, and trains run only every two hours. All in, better to wait with this posting...
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Length: 26.0 km (16.2 mi) [shorter walk possible, see below]

Ascent/Descent: 738m; Net Walking Time: ca. 6 ½ hours

Toughness: 10 out of 10

Take the 09.20  Exeter St. David’s and Bristol Temple Meads train from Waterloo (Clapham J. 09.27, Woking 09.46), arrives Tisbury at 11.06. 
You have to be in the Exeter part of the train (and in the front three coaches of that).

Return trains: 17.01, 18.01, 18.27, 19.03, 20.01, 21.01  and 22.02.

This walk heads south from the Vale of Wardour through the southerly parts of the West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is spectacular walking country with some breath-taking views. The full walk reaches the hilltop boundary with the Cranborne Chase AONB (with views all the way to the coast, around Bournemouth and Poole). You’ll find picturesque villages and atmospheric pubs in the beautiful undulating countryside, as well as a wooded Iron Age hill fort site and plenty of dry chalky U-shaped downland valleys. The middle part of the walk especially leads through – or around the rim of – several very pretty coombes.

The walk starts with a gentle ascent out of Tisbury across fields but features a few short and sharp ascents later on as well as three more prominent ascents, spread out through the day, before descending back into Tisbury, a remarkably unspoilt village.

Note: this walk is written up in both directions, with both versions available in separate pdf’s. Be sure to print the clockwise version if you want to walk with the group.

A Shortcut  after lunch, limiting the effort to 8/10, is described.

Bus number 29 (Shaftesbury to Salisbury) stops outside the lunch pub in Ebbesbourne Wake and in Alvediston (approx. every 90 mins); it gets you to Salisbury Bus Station (a 10 minutes’ walk from the train station) in just short of an hour.

Lunch: The Horseshoe Inn, Ebbesbourne Wake (9.7 km/6.1 mi) into the walk. Open 12.00-15.00. Food served 12.00-14.00; 
The Crown Inn, Alvediston, (16.3 km/10.1 mi) into the walk. Re-opened in 2018 after long closure, as a tea room initially but might have opened as a pub again (the www is not very conclusive).

Tea en route: The Royal Oak, Swallowcliffe. (21.5 km/13.4 mi) into the full walk and 16.5 km (10.3 mi) into the short walk. Open all day every day. This usually makes for a wonderful tea stop, before the last serious ascent of the walk. But as of July 5 it has not re-opened yet after the Covid-lockdown!

Tea in Tisbury:  Tisbury Fish & Chips, Beatons Tearooms and Bookshop, The Beckford Bottle Shop, Genius Coffea, The Benett, The Boot Inn (for all these: see the pdf for details).

For walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml  files click here. T=swc.250.a