🥾 Walk 115 - Snelsmore Common Evening Walk

Tuesday 29th July was another warm day, with temperatures reaching 27°C, so the cool of the evening was a good time for a short walk. Thirteen of us (including a couple of visitors from the Oxfordshire group and one from the Berkshire Walkers 20s & 30s group) gathered at Snelsmore Common Country Park for this 3½ mile evening walk.

We started off by heading south-west into Snelsmore Common, a mixture of woodland and heathland. The recent long spell of warm weather meant that the usually muddy footpaths were completely dry.

We left the common on a footpath between farmland and a golf course, heading south toward the village of Bagnor. Although the leader had not planned to stop here, the group persuaded her that there was time for a swift half at the Blackbird pub.

Suitably refreshed, we continued our route by heading east and crossing a bridge over the A34 Newbury Bypass, which took us to the ruins of Donnington Castle.

The twin-towered gatehouse is all that remains of this 14th century castle, apart for the earthwork around it. We stopped to admire the castle and the views of Newbury it commands before continuing our walk by heading north-east and crossing the A34 on another bridge.

Heading north past the golf course once again, we re-entered Snelsmore Common Country Park and made our way back to the cars, with half-an-hour of daylight to spare. See our route on Bing Maps.

As there was still some of the evening left, most of us went on to another pub, The Castle, which was a mile or so down the road and - guess what - close to Donnington Castle.

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