Coleshill's orange walk
Great Coxwell Barn, Coxwell, Faringdon, SN7 7LZRoute details and mapDownload as a print friendly PDF
This gentle walk through our traditionally rural estates is a delight for ramblers. It passes through two picturesque working farms, open fields and bluebell woods. There's an abundance of wildlife, be it flowers, birds, butterflies or fungi, to enjoy whatever the season.
- Bus stop
Start: Great Coxwell Barn car park, OS grid ref: SU269941
Take time to explore Great Coxwell Barn.
Check out the magnificent wooden infrastructure and lofty ceilings inside this striking 12th-century barn. Built of Cotswold rubble-stone walling, with a Cotswold slate roof, it's the sole surviving part of a thriving medieval grange that once provided vital income for Beaulieu Abbey. Nestled next to a pond and surrounded by swathes of wild grasses, it's a place of peace and tranquillity.
Walk into the village and turn right into Puddleduck Lane. Continue past farm buildings and across an open field with a ridge and furrow pattern. Continue through the gate and along the field to the farm track. Turn right through Colleymore Farm.
Cross the road and follow Brimstone Farm drive.
Turn right just before the farmhouse and follow the edge of the field, continue over the footbridge into the second field. Turn left and right along the hedge and enter Badbury Woods. Follow the track straight up the hill through the woods, past a half hidden cottage until you reach the car park.
Watch out for red kites or buzzards soaring overhead as you cross the fields towards Badbury Woods. In summer, enjoy the welcome dappled shade of the trees, which include oak, ash, birch hazel and wild cherry as well as Scots pine. The woods, which we care for, are alive with insects and animals, including grey squirrels and fallow deer. Young adventurers can enjoy den building or making a trail with sticks too...
At the far end of the car park turn left through a gateway and turn right along a permissive path beside a hedge.
An Iron Age hill fort was once at the top of Badbury Woods, in the area next to the car park. It is likely that the fort was built and occupied from around 600BC and was in continuous use until the first century AD. It was mainly used for storage and would have housed round huts, grain storage pits and stock pounds inside its ramparts. Much evidence of the fort has been lost over the years from ploughing. Today, Badbury Clump is renowned for its spectacular beech trees and bluebell displays in spring and early summer.
At the second gateway, turn right and cross the road. Continue along a grass track, alongside a wood. Turn left over a stile and through the corner of the wood and out the other side over a footbridge and stile.
Follow a field around to the left until a gateway where you can return to Great Coxwell Barn.
End: Great Coxwell Barn car park, OS grid ref: SU269941
Great British Walk
- Trail: Walking
- Grade: Easy
- Distance: 3.5 miles (5.6km)
- Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- OS Map: Pathfinder 1135
An undulating walk following farm tracks and footpaths across fields with an ascent through woods. Some tracks and footpaths may be muddy and uneven, especially after rain, so care and suitable footwear are recommended. The route goes through two farmyards and fields, where there may be stock, so dogs must be kept under control at all times. There are a number of stiles, gates and a small footbridge, and the walk crosses the B4019 road.
- How to get here:
By car: Great Coxwell Barn is on the Buscot and Coleshill Estates, 2 miles (3.2km) south west of Faringdon between the A420 and B4019.
- Car parking limited, but free
- No immediate local public toilet facilities, shops, or pubs
- Nearest toilets at the Coleshill estate yard, approximately 1.5 miles (2.4km) away on the B4019
- Telephone: 01793 762209
- Email: email@example.com
- Website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/buscot-coleshill-estates/