🥾 Walk 39 - Silchester and Pamber Forest

Sixteen of us met up at the Wall Lane car park in Silchester for this Easter Saturday walk. Although the temperature was only 4°C (10 degrees below the seasonal average) it was dry and the sun peeped through the clouds at regular intervals.

The first part of our walk explored the remains of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum. We entered at the west gate and walked along the north wall to the east gate before taking a slight detour to look at the amphitheatre outside the walls.

We re-entered the walled town via the churchyard of the 12th century church of Saint Mary the Virgin. There was an enclosure nearby with three alpacas grazing - one white, one brown and one black. Enough colours there to make a fetching scarf or jumper.

Amphitheatre, just outside the city walls of Calleva Atrebatum

From there we took a route across the middle of the Roman town, passing the site of the archaeological dig, which was closed and full of water. We departed the town at the west gate to make our way to Pamber Forest.

First we headed south and then south-west across farmland and woodland, most of which was easy-going, until we entered Pamber Forest. From there on, the route we took seemed to regularly swap from dry, well-made paths to swampy waterlogged dark-brown sludge.

Fortunately we were on dry, well-drained soil by the time we stopped for our picnic lunch. After we'd finished, we headed north-east through the forest, encountering more waterlogged paths and crossing a number of streams.

Alpacas inside the city walls of Calleva Atrebatum

We finally emerged from the forest behind a residential area of Silchester, a short distance from the Calleva Arms, a characterful pub where we stopped for a drink.

Suitably re-hydrated, we finished the last mile of the walk by crossing the football pitch and taking the path back to the west gate of the Roman wall. From there we retraced our steps back to the car park.

At only six-and-a-half miles, this was a fairly short walk but it still had a good variety of scenery and terrain. You can see our route on Google Maps.

We found somewhere dry to sit in Pamber Forest for our picnic lunch

Crossing a stream in Pamber Forest. One of our many detours to avoid waterlogged paths

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