September 2003: The Bath Skyline Walk - 6 miles plus (quite a bit!)

This is a great walk (not in the above book and not actually in Wiltshire but it's not far away) but you need to add on time to get to & from wherever you leave your car if not using public transport and make allowances for getting lost, which we did! We started at the National Trust's Prior Park where we got a leaflet showing the walk and tackled the walk back to front which made following some of the instructions quite difficult. It's very steep in places and we found it the most tiring of all those on this page but it was well worth it. The views across Bath are terrific and we even got to see a Civil War re-enactment camp near to the American Museum. In case you're wondering, the mansion in Prior Park is used as a school and the castle is called Sham Castle, because that's exactly what it is. 

September 2003: Pewsey Vale and Down 7 miles (Walk 17)

It was a beautiful day and perfect for this walk, which is fairly hilly in places. We started out at the Wansdyke, a sort of pre-historic motorway and took in the villages of Stanton St Bernard, Honeystreet (where we stopped for a pub lunch at the Barge Inn), Alton Barnes and Alton Priors. This is crop circle country but too late in the season for us to see any. The walk right up to the white horse is optional - we didn't do it as white horses look better from a distance.

June 2003: A Walk with Good Manors from Holt. 3 miles plus time in The Courts NT garden. (Walk 36)

This walk starts by the lovely National Trust garden, The Courts, in Holt. We spent some time in there before walking across fields and country lanes, past Great Chalfield Manor (also NT) and back. It's an easy walk, mostly flat with lots of kissing gates - and an unusual ladder stile, shown below. There's a pub at Holt (The Old Ham Tree) & tea rooms will be opening at Courts later in the year. 

May 2003: Walk in Broadleas Gardens, Devizes

Our walking was curtailed for a while due to knee surgery so we decided to get back into it gradually, starting with a walk in Broadleas Gardens, just outside Devizes. The gardens are delightful, mainly wooded, and there's all a tearoom in the house. Below are photos taken of the house and gardens.

March 2003: Circular pub walk - Hilperton Marina to The Beehive, Bradford-on-Avon. Approx 5 miles

This is one of my dad's favourites as after an hour or so walking, you can refresh yourself with a good pint or two at The Beehive! You can follow the canal towpath all the way to the pub but we diverted through some newly planted woodland, Widbrook Wood, which is north of the canal. That route also took us alongside the River Avon for a short way.  

    February 2003: Savernake's Royal Forest - 5.5 miles (Walk 3)

This was the first walk we tackled from the book mentioned above, on a lovely February Saturday. We started at the Hat Gate picnic area off the A346 south of Marlborough, heading off through the forest towards The Column and Tottenham House. We then walked through the village of Durley, joining the canal at the Bruce Canal. After Cadley Lock we returned to the car park. 

South of the A346	South of the A346	South of the A346	Old milestone on entrance to Forest	Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest	The Column	En route to Tottenham House	Kennet & Avon Canal west of the Bruce Tunne	Burbage Wharf

Canal

Canal

Cadley Lock

A few of the many snowdrops we saw

December 2002: Devizes area - About 4.5 miles

The first batch of photos were taken during the Christmas holidays in the Devizes area. This walk was of our own devising. It starts at the Kennet & Avon Canal wharf, follows the footpath alongside the council offices, follows Consciences Lane, partly on the lane and partly by footpath until Roundway. It leaves Roundway across the fields to Quakers Walk at the end of which is the wharf. 

Devizes wharf

Roundway Down