Walk into the AONB
3 mile (4.8 km) walk into the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
This is an extract from the leaflet. The printable leaflet is available to download from our online library.
1. From Overton School (A), in Court Drove, with the school on your left, follow the lane northwards. Watch out for vehicles in this section. View the ancient hedgerows on either side. Pause on the railway bridge (B); ahead and to the left and right is the North Wessex Downs AONB.
2. About half a mile after the bridge, past several field openings, look out for an opening in the hedge on the left with a track running left beside a tall hedgerow. Follow this track (a permissive path courtesy of James and Jackie Crosbie Dawson) along the left of the tall hedgerow, running roughly south-west, for a further third of a mile to another hedgerow. Stop and take in the view across arable fields to the left and back to the railway.
3. Follow the track as it bears left and then right through a gap in the hedge, crossing a narrow footpath. Pass through onto another permissive path which continues along a farm track, still roughly south-west for a quarter of a mile.
4. As the track bears left, turn sharp right and follow the path northwards (which is a public right of way known as Jack Mills Lane) between two hedgerows for just under another two-thirds of a mile. Continue uphill to the junction with a byway, a broad track known as the Harroway.
5. Turn right onto the Harroway. Watch out for off-road vehicles. After about a third of a mile you will pass a public footpath on the right, C (which can be used as an alternative route back to point 3). Keep going straight ahead on the Harroway and after another third of a mile you will reach the crossing with Court Drove.
6. Turn right into Court Drove, a path between 2 hedgerows, and walk at first downhill and then on an undulating track for about a mile southwards back to the railway bridge and the school.
Download the full leaflet from our online library, return to the Nature trails page or return to the top of this page.
