Ramsbury, Chilton Foliat and the Kennet Valley

Richard Clayton

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You will be walking in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, along a ridge above the Kennet Valley and then back along the valley itself.

The idea behind this walk came from different sources:
a) reading about the preparations for the D-Day landings, having watched The Band of Brothers TV series, b) staying for a complimentary weekend at Littlecote House, which has all sorts of historical connections; and c) discovering a lovely area which I hoped would make a good walk!

The walk has only one real climb, right at the start, as you walk out of Ramsbury and enjoy the view looking back over the village and to the west. Thereafter you cross the former RAF Ramsbury airfield, with its D-Day history, then drop down gradually through scattered woodland – with fantastic bluebells in May – and pass near Littlecote House as you follow a quiet road and cross the River Kennet into Chilton Foliat. The village has an interesting church, an ancient tree and a decent pub among other attractions! See Additional Information.

The return leg takes you through the grounds of Littlecote House, where you can visit the impressive Roman Villa and Orpheus Mosaic. Then you follow a wide track between river and fields back into Ramsbury. This is a bigger village, still with its own bishop, located beside the beautiful clear waters of the Kennet, with interesting old buildings including the church, Parliament Piece and the old Church House and several pubs – rather fewer these days than the ten that apparently catered for the Americans in the war!

A great walk for me in this part of England includes sightings of deer, buzzards and red kites, larks, perhaps one other favourite bird like a stonechat or yellowhammer or lapwing and hares. This one on the right day ticks all the boxes, plus trout under the bridges of the Kennet!

England - South England - Wiltshire - River Walk

Features

Ancient Monument, Birds, Church, Flowers, Food Shop, Great Views, Pub, Public Transport, River, Stately Home, Wildlife, Woodland
10/3/2016 - Mark Hylton

Walked this route at the end of September and it was a really nice walk with simple navigation. The route description is still accurate. On a positive note, the Bell pub in the centre of Ramsbury has a nice cafe round the back that opens at 08.30 and does good coffee (and breakfast!). As noted in the other comments, the route at WM07 through the farm yard has no sign of a footpath (and no skip either), but we just walked down the concrete drive to the road.

1/15/2012 - Andrew Long

Enjoyed the walk especially the airfield and river crossings. The yellow skip in WM07 has now gone and its easy to miss footpath on right which runs parallel to banking. I carried on to the right on concrete drive with buildings on left to come out on public road a little further down from sign in WM08 photo. All pubs mentioned in walk are open though the Bell has recently re-opened after refurbishment and looks like it has gone upmarket!

2/26/2011 - Stephen Jordan

We enjoyed this walk and found it easy to follow. It offered good contrasts. The pub mentioned seemed to have deteriorated and wasn't offering food (on a Tuesday).

8/3/2010 - Judy Brua

The pub mentioned at Waymark 27 wasn't open on a Monday. We went to The Bell on the High Street, and found it very good, we were glad the other one wasn't open. So a good choice. The walk itself was very nice, particularly the river crossings at Waymarks 2 & 15.