Our Sunday walks are by coach and are more often than not linear, with a different drop-off and pick-up point, making for more interesting and varied walking. We have three levels of walk to suit all abilities, 7-8, 10 and 12 miles approx. A packed lunch and a flask of tea/coffee or soft drinks should be taken for the whole day, although we may have a lunchtime pub/café stop for refreshments. The pick-up point for the coach is the layby at the side of St. Chad’s Cathedral. The coach leaves at 9.00 am, but advise walkers to arrive by 8.45 am. Booking is essential for these walks. The fare is £5.
GENERAL INFORMATION: These walks are a great opportunity to see sites used and occupied by ancient people in the rolling countryside with great views across the Wiltshire and Oxfordshire downs. Walkers on all three routes will have the chance follow in the footsteps of bronze age man, who used the Ridgeway to travel across England on higher, drier land. Along it’s route are many historical sites. We will visit Uffington ‘Castle’, which occupies the summit of Whitehorse Hill, and is a rare and outstanding example of a large Iron Age Hillfort. The famous White Horse is the oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain, perhaps over 3,000 years old and Wayland’s Smithy, is a Neolithic chambered long barrow, that was once believed to have been the home of Wayland, the Saxon god of metal working.
BOOKING ESSENTIAL, please use the link above for our booking page. Coach fare £5, payable cash/cheque or in advance by bank transfer.
The Birmingham Ramblers recently bid for, and won, a grant from the Inclusive Communities Fund which is part of the legacy of the Commonwealth Games. This grant is specifically to assist with coach transport to encourage new people to join the Sunday walks and start walking in country areas.
We will be using this fund to subsidise coach-based walks, such as this one, in areas which offer opportunities to new inexperienced walkers as well as challenges to regular walkers under the banner Keep Fit for a Fiver. As this suggests, we are reducing the coach fare for this and some other selected walks to £5 for all, be they regular walkers or new faces.