🥾 Walk 7 - Barbury Castle and Marlborough Downs

Sixteen people attended this walk, held jointly with the Berkshire Walkers 20s and 30s group on this August bank-holiday Sunday. The weather was surprisingly good compared with the rest of the bank holiday weekend.

We started off from the big car park near Barbury Castle and headed off east along the ridgeway path. This runs along the top of Smeathe's Ridge for a while, giving excellent views into the valley of Ogbourne Down.

The path then starts to descend from the top of the ridgeway down the north side, giving views of the hills between Ogbourne St George and Aldbourne where we walked last week.

We followed the path to Ogbourne St George and then southward to Ogbourne St Andrew. On the way we passed a tiny hamlet called Southend, with thatched cottages and a tennis court. We often see private tennis courts on our walks but none of us have ever seen anyone playing in them!

We stopped for our picnic just before we got to Ogbourne St Andrew and then stopped for a drink at the local pub. After that, we set off out of the village in a north-westward direction, following bridleways, footpaths and byways. On our way back up to the hill top fort of Barbury Castle, some of the paths were quite slippery with wet chalky clay (from the previous day's rain).

There used to be a little farm cafe at top where we have stopped on previous walks, but sadly it looks to have been destroyed by fire and is quite derelict now.

We found an Ice Cream van in the car park, and after our refreshments some of us went and explored Barbury Castle. It is basically the earthwork remains of an Iron Age hill fort dating back 2,500 years.

Have a look at the route on Google Maps and also take a look at the hill fort earthworks to the west of the car park.

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