On Sunday 10nd July, eleven of us gathered under a leaden sky in the free car park by Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire. Most of us were armed with waterproofs, which turned out not to be necessary as we saw only a sprinkle of rain a couple of times during the morning and the afternoon was warm and quite sunny.
The name Wittenham Clumps refers to the clumps of trees at the tops of the two Sinodun Hills. Castle Hill, the shorter of the two, was the site of an Iron Age hill fort. We made our way up this hill and walked round the perimeter of the hill fort earthworks before crossing over to Round Hill and heading up to the clump of trees at the top. Here we had a good view of Dorchester-on-Thames.
Walking down the steep slope to the north of Round Hill, we approached the village of Little Wittenham and its bridge over the River Thames. (This bridge is used for the World Poohsticks Championship.) Crossing the Thames and some fields, we arrived at the Roman town of Dorchester-on-Thames where we stopped at the Abbey Tea Rooms. They were closed but we were able to use their facilities.
After walking through the gardens of the Abbey Church, we made our way out of Dorchester, heading south to the Thames Path. This we followed, back past Little Wittenham Bridge, and crossing the river at Day's Lock to continue on the other side.
We stopped for our picnic lunch on the Thames Path before leaving it and crossing farmland to reach the village of Long Wittenham. Here we stopped at the Plough Inn for refreshments. The weather made a short attempt at rain but sunshine soon followed. We made our way back by crossing mostly open farmland, during which we could see views of the partly demolished Didcot Power Station.
At one point we passed a field where the farmer was using a tractor to cut the hay. Above the field a large number of Red Kites were circling. They were flying quite low and their beautiful markings were easily seen. A small amount of road walking brought us back to the car park. See our route on Bing Maps.
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