# 🥾 Walk 63 - Burghclere and Highclere

On Sunday 18th August, twenty of us gathered in the car park at the bottom of Beacon Hill by the A34 for a 6½ mile walk around. The weather was a mixture of showers and sunny intervals, gradually improving through the day.

We crossed over the A34 heading east to Old Burghclere, where we turned north, passing through a field full of horses and riders getting ready for some event. (I don't know what.) Stopping to give way to the horses, we left the field and followed the course of a dismantled railway line, heading north.

Eventually we came to a railway bridge. Following a steep path up the embankment, we crossed the bridge and followed the open track heading east to Duncroft Farm. From there we took a series of wooded and open paths gradually working our way north to Burghclere village.

![Heading from Beacon Hill to Old Burghclere. Watership Down can be seen in the distant right.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/old_burghclere.jpg)

The pub stop was at the Carpenter's Arms in the village, where some of the group had a full Sunday lunch. The rest of us had brought packed lunches and we ate these in the garden of the Sandham Memorial Chapel.

After the picnic was over, most went on to join the others in the pub, but a couple of us had a look around the chapel, which was built to honour the 'forgotten dead' of the First World War. It contained some amazing murals painted by Stanley Spencer, inspired by his own experiences during that war.

After the pub, we left Burghclere village and headed south through a mixture of farmland and woodland. Every so often there would be a glimpse of Beacon Hill in the distance, but at no time on the walk could we see Highclere Castle, which is buried in a valley of trees.

![Heading from Burghclere to Old Burghclere. Looks like its raining on north face of Beacon Hill.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/distant_rain.jpg)

We passed through Ridgemoor Farm on our zigzag route back to Old Burghclere. From there, we retraced our outward route back to the car park, completing the 7½ mile walk.

At this point some of our group went home, while the rest of us split into two parties; one going to Highclere Castle for a look around and a cuppa in the café, and the other doing an additional walk to ascend Beacon Hill for a wander around the hill fort.

The rain had stopped a while ago and the route up the hill didn't look too slippery, so we began the slog up the steep chalky path to the top. On the way up, we stopped a few times to catch breath and admire the ever-improving view.

![Heading up Beacon Hill with the A34 and Old Burghclere in the background.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/beacon_hill.jpg)

Assembling at the trig point, we surveyed the landscape around us; with Highclere Castle, Newbury and Thatcham to the north, Basingstoke and Watership Down to the east, St Mary Bourne and Whitechurch to the south.

We walked a short distance west of the trig point to the grave of Lord Carnarvon before following the perimeter of the hill fort back to the path we came up, and descending to the car park.

This extra walk tagged onto the end was less than 1½ miles but involved 131m (430ft) of ascent and felt like quite a workout. It was worth it though, for the excellent views. I recorded the route of the main 7½ mile walk with my GPS but the extra walk was not recorded. See the route of the main walk on Google Maps.

![Highclere Castle aka 'Downton Abbey', taken with a long lens from the top of Beacon Hill.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/highclere_castle.jpg)

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