The North Wessex Downs 2024 Walking Festival has taken place, but why not take a look at some of our self-guided walks
The annual North Wessex Downs Walking Festival is a celebration of the stunning landscapes, glorious scenery and top-class walking country that this National Landscape has to offer.
It provides opportunities to seek out wildlife, history or culture, picnic with the family or simply soak up the views from the top of the downs. And this year there were even more farm walks on offer where you could hear directly from the farmers or land managers about their work.
We would like to take this opportunity to express how grateful we are to all our partners who organise and lead walks, without whom this festival simply would not be possible.
All walks that took place this year are listed below.
A copy of our printed programme leaflet can be downloaded here.
Pewsey, Jones’s Mill Nature Reserve and Kennet & Avon Canal
Starting in the village of Pewsey, we go out to the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Jones’s Mill Nature Reserve (orchids a-plenty) and then back along the Kennet & Avon Canal, returning to Pewsey via The Scotchel, a lovely little nature reserve with the River Avon running through it.
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Ramsbury and Littlecote history walk
A walk from the pretty village of Ramsbury – across countryside with great views and wooded valleys – to the Tudor mansion of Littlecote House. The walk returns past a Roman villa with an impressive, restored mosaic floor.
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Wiltshire 3 Peaks Challenge
Come and join local charity the Youth Adventure Trust in the beautiful Pewsey Vale to take on the Wiltshire 3 Peaks Challenge – a 10km or half marathon circular route.
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Wetlands and regenerative farming around Wilton
A circular walk through the countryside of Wilton exploring regenerative farming and local history. Starting at Wilton Windmill, we will see newly created wetlands and the Kennet and Avon canal, and return along a Roman Road.
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Coopers in the Wood and Cowdown Copse
A circular walk from Whitchurch railway station, taking us into the North Wessex Downs towards Coopers in the Wood, looping back towards the Harrow Way (Neolithic road), and finally returning via Cowdown Copse.
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Going underground: transforming the landscape of Roundway Hill
Explore Roundway Hill on this walk which takes in an Iron Age hillfort, the site of a civil war battlefield and glorious open downland country. See work underway on a major landscape enhancement project from National Grid which will remove 10 pylons from Roundway Hill on the western edge of the National Landscape.
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A walk around Lambourn Downs and Sheepdrove Organic Farm
In the heart of the North Wessex Downs, this circular walk explores Lambourn Downs and Sheepdrove Organic Farm taking in the drovers’ roads and footpaths that criss-cross this 2,000-acre mixed farm.
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Sunday saunter
Join us for a Sunday afternoon walk through woods and over open fields from Hampstead Norreys, an historic village nestled deep in rolling downland on the upper reaches of the River Pang. There is plenty of interest to discover along the way, including a sparkling stream, wildflowers, and ancient mounds to wartime relics.
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