Walking the Clarendon Way

I’ll be honest and say we’re spoilt with the number of fabulous walks around us. The best part is you don’t have to contend with cars. Perhaps, the odd tractor or jockeys out for a ride on their ponies. Best time for reflection and being at one with nature or listen to the odd audiobook if you’re not bird spotting.

One of my favourite walks literally on our door step is the Clarendon Way. According to Wikipedia, the Clarendon Way is a recreational footpath in Hampshire and Wiltshire, England. It starts beside the waters of the River Itchen in the centre of Winchester and ends near the River Avon at Salisbury Cathedral.

The path passes through the Clarendon Estate and close to the 12th century ruins of Clarendon Palace. The path also passes through Farley Mount (another favourite for Christmas Day route march after Xmas day lunch) Country Park and the villages of Pitton, The Winterslows, Broughton and King’s Somborne. The path shares part of its route with the Monarch’s Way long distance footpath. The Mornach’s Way of course, connects you to the Test Way see my previous post.

The footpath is waymarked by metal and plastic disks attached to wooden and metal posts, trees and street furniture. This route is shown as a series of green diamonds on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps and as a series of red diamonds on Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps.

Several charity events take place along the Clarendon way:

Each June, the Naomi House & Jacksplace charity organises a sponsored walk along the Clarendon Way. The event attracts thousands of walkers and raises significant sums for the charity.
Each May, we have the Houghton Trail which is a cross country and cycle event that hundreds of cyclists and runners take part in to raise money for charity. We love taking part in this one. It’s open to adults and children.
The Clarendon Marathon takes place every year on the first Sunday in October. The event is organised by the Rotary Clubs of Winchester and Salisbury, along with other volunteers, and attracts over one thousand runners each year. The proceeds from the race are donated to good causes and many runners also raise money for a charity of their choice. Competitors can choose between full marathon, half marathon and 5 mile options, and it’s also possible to cover the full marathon distance as a four-person relay team.

If you set off from Broughton, you can walk as the crow flies south east and you will end up via Faithfull Drove facing the entrance to our meadow.

This is one of our favourite local walks. I can imagine Ariadne riding a Shetland pony to school on this route at some point. The pony of course, will know how to get her to and back from school for sure.

Here a few of my favourite photos from a couple of days ago. There is one with Theo on my back. He just woke up after a long nap.

If you’re out on a pub crawl, you can of course set off from the Tally Ho or Greyhound in Broughton and end up at the Boot Inn in Houghton. None of these are shabby watering holes I hasten to add!