![\"Stopping](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume24/images/mapledurwell_pond.jpg\")
On Sunday 13th May fourteen people met at the Deer Park View car park off Odiham High street for the start of this walk. The walkers included several guests from other Ramblers groups as well as BWW members.
\nFirst we headed towards the Basingstoke Canal and followed the towpath to the swing bridge at North Warnborough. We then walked through Greywell Moors, a nature reserve managed by the Hampshire Wildlife Trust. We stopped briefly to look at Greywell Mill, where the dilapidated waterwheel can still be seen although is no longer operational.
\nThen began a gradual incline, following the route of the Three Castles Path, to the crossing point of tracks known as Five Lanes End. Along the way there were some good views across Odiham and surrounding areas.
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At Five Lanes End we left the Three Castles Path, which continues all the way to Winchester. Instead, we took the track descending to Mapledurwell and our lunch stop by the village pond.
\nAfter lunch another short incline took us away from Mapledurwell up to Andwell Drove, and a short distance along this track we arrived at Little Tunnel bridge, a Grade 2 listed structure through which the canal once flowed. We took a track along the original route of the canal and crossed Greywell Road to reach the current end point of the canal.
\nThe towpath of this section of the canal goes past the former location of the brickworks at Up Nateley and to the western portal of the Greywell Tunnel. Most of the brickwork has collapsed and all that remains is the bore of the tunnel.
\n![\"Stopping](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume24/images/greywell_tunnel_west.jpg\")
Someone asked me if I knew why they didn't route the canal round the hill instead of building the tunnel (which took 6 hours to "leg" a boat through). I wasn't sure but have since discovered that Earl Tylney, the original owner of nearby Tylney Hall objected to the canal passing through his land! Navigation through the tunnel is no longer possible as it has collapsed in the middle and is now home to a protected colony of bats.
\nThe next part of our walk was over Greywell Hill to Greywell village and the Fox and Goose, where we stopped for refreshments. We then continued back to the canal and the eastern portal of the Greywell Tunnel which in contrast to the western portal is still intact. Here the towpath leads over the aqueduct where the canal crosses the River Whitewater and to the remains of Odiham Castle, where we stopped briefly to look at the ruins and the information boards about its history.
\nSoon afterwards we arrived back at the North Warnborough swing bridge and crossed our earlier route to take a different option back to Odiham. Here we saw the church and the village stocks (which are on display outside) before returning to our start point at the car park. See our route on Google Maps.
\n![\"Walking](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume24/images/greywell_tunnel_east.jpg\")
![\"Stopping](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume24/images/odiham_castle.jpg\")
Thank you to Denise for leading the walk, for providing these pictures and for writing it up.
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