Thursday 17th March 2011 Leckhampton Hill, Gloucs

Traffic has been awful around Cheltenham since the national hunt horse racing festival started on Tuesday, especially on the main routes into town from the Air Balloon, Cirencester, Evesham, Oxford etc. So for this walk, I decided to re-do a walk I've done a few times, first off with Robin & Liz - only this time by myself. 


It is a 6 mile walk (2 hours) starting from my house in Croft Street, following streets up to Burrows Field, then through Leckhampton village, Collum End Rise and then up through fields towards Daisy Bank Road. The stretch from the fields to Daisy Bank Road follows the old tram track which used to take quarry stones down to the tram terminus at the Norwood Triangle. 


Norwood Triangle

I followed the road, passed the car parks for walkers, bikers and dog walkers and headed along, past houses on my left until the road, which has turned into a track, meets the extension of Sandy Lane in Charlton Kings. I turned right along the track towards Seven Springs and past Lilley Brook golf club on my left until I joined the Cotswold Way, turning right up the escarpment to walk along the hill top. There is a major dry stone wall project underway on the hilltop and I passed the workers and the length of wall already completed. A lovely piece of work (and presumably very expensive!). I followed the escarpment with great views of Cheltenham and beyond to my right. I could see the race course and was more than a little jealous of the people who had made it for the Thursday session on St Patrick's Day.

The escarpment with the new dry stone wall on the left, leads to the highest point on the Cotswold Way (925 ft) and has great views over the town and as you follow the track, you can also see the various hills towards to Malverns and even the Black Mountains in Wales. It is a site of Iron Age hill fort and long barrow and famous for its old limestone quarries. Old tramway lines criss-cross the hill from the days of limestone quarrying and the remains of kilns and quarries are still very much in evidence. It is a site with a great deal of cultural and historical significance as much of the stone removed from the quarry on the Hill was used for buildings in Cheltenham - and also parts of Magdalen College, Oxford. 

Devil's Chimney

The track leads past the Devil's Chimney, a substantial pillar of stone left standing next to one of the upper inclines, but nothing is known as to who left it there or why. In days gone by, passers-by would try and land a coin on the top but now it is more like to be stones that are thrown. Once past the Devil's Chimney, I started downhill with a choice of routes. The quickest is to follow the old tramway path but this is quite steep, so I opted for the more leisurely descent towards the car park where I re-joined Daisybank Road and the tramway path which I'd followed on the way up. I re-traced my steps over farmland, Collum End Rise and Burrows Field before getting home.


An OS view of the walk is below, courtesy of QUO digital mapping/OS: