Harbury - Ufton - Grand Union Canal - Harbury

Ron and Jenny Glynn

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Harbury - Ufton - Grand Union Canal - Radford Semele - Harbury

This walk is one of variation, interest and beauty. Leave the 13th Century Norman church in Harbury, to pass other old and attractive buildings in the narrow streets of the village, before taking a bridleway track out into wonderful rural countryside. The route heads for Ufton, where there is a large nature reserve and a haven for wildlife and where one can linger to watch and observe on the nature trails.

Passing the lovely old village church, the route soon leaves the road to take a track on part of the Centenary Way, with delightful scenes along the way, eventually to arrive at a canal-bridge, to take the towpath. There then begins a considerable length of the Grand Union Canal, passing several locks on a downward flight to Radford Bottom Lock, rural and peaceful the whole of the way.

Interesting to note, all the bricks used along this part of the canal were made from materials derived in the locality in the winter of 1795. A little road-walking ensues before you enter Radford Semele, a rather large village near Leamington Spa. The remainder of the walk is on paths and tracks in fields and meadows in rich farming country, back to Harbury.

This entrance passes many pretty cottages and several old and traditional pubs and gives a good view of the old windmill tower ahead, looking down on the village.

England - Central England - Warwickshire - Canal Walk

Features

Birds, Butterflies, Church, Flowers, Food Shop, Great Views, Nature Trail, Pub, Wildlife, Woodland

2/5/2023 - Louise Winterton

05/02/23 Completed this lovely walk this morning, my GPS route worked out at 9.3 miles, all signage seems pretty visible along the route and all farms appear to have made it pretty easy to navigate around the various properties, the short section of busy road past the church and White Hart pub in Ufton can be walked on the grass verge if careful, HS2 construction has not affected the route at all, the only point to watch out for is the "snicket" on the LHS of the road as you enter Radford Semele, it can easily be missed. Nice pub in Harbury The Shakespeare at the finish.

7/8/2013 - Brita Sread

A nice walk but the directions were a little hard to follow in places. Also at the beginning of the walk some of the gates were chained and padlocked even though the adjacent posts were clearly marked with the footpath signs. This made the walk more difficult as you had to climb over the gates which could cause difficulty especially with dogs. It is worth persevering but I got the impression the landowners are trying to deter walkers.

3/19/2012 - Mike Skidmore

Did this walk last week. Unfortunately the weather wasn't particularly clear but on a clear day, views from phone mast in waypoint 16 will be spectacular. Stretch of the Grand Union canal is very calm & peaceful during the week. A minor correction to commentary - many of the stiles referred to in the early waypoints have now been replaced by galvanised metal kissing gates.

8/9/2011 - Walkingworld Administrator

Our thanks to Ron & Jenny Glynn for their updates for this walk. August 2011. Adrian (Admin)

7/30/2011 - Steve Moore

Very nice walk, taking in scenery of all types. We lost track between points 16 and 17, but followed the waymarkers, basically walking the edge of the fields which are well marked and ended up at point 18.