Clarendon Way - Booking essential as numbers are limited

The Clarendon Way is named after Clarendon Palace the ruins of which are located in Clarendon Park. The original Palace was a royal hunting lodge for the Norman Kings before being extended by the Plantagenets into a substantial country residence, although by 1500 the building was no longer being maintained and by 1574 it had reverted to a hunting lodge. Usage continued to decline and by the 18th Century only ruins survived. Today, the only part of the Palace surviving above ground is one end wall of the great hall. 

The whole route runs for 27.5 miles from Winchester Cathedral to Salisbury Cathedral and transcends a variety of countryside including woodland, downland, and farmland.

Please book your place online using the website link.

DAY 1

WINCHESTER TO BROUGHTON

Please meet at 8.30am at Broughton Village Hall car park from where we will travel to Winchester, the walk starting from the West Door of Winchester Cathedral promptly at 10.00am. We walk out through the streets and suburbs of Winchester passing the Hospital of St Cross which dates back to the 12th Century and is Britain’s oldest charitable institution. The hospital was established by Henry de Blois, a grandson of William the Conqueror, to house thirteen men who were too frail to work and to feed one hundred men at the gates every day.

The route then passes Oliver’s Battery, an iron age earthwork where the name dates back to the English Civil War and is associated with the siege of Winchester in 1645. An extensive Veterinary Hospital for horses was also maintained there during the First World War.

Effectively looping round on itself the route then joins Sarum Road, a Roman road, passing Crab Wood Nature Reserve and Ashmore Hill Copse before reaching Farley Mount, one of the highest points in Hampshire and named after the monument to the racehorse “Beware Chalk Pit”. From there the route gradually descends to King’s Somborne following which it ascends briefly before dropping down to Houghton after crossing the River Test. The final stretch of the day follows both the Clarendon Way and the Monarch’s Way across good quality farm tracks to Broughton.

Distance: approximately 15.5 miles.  Ascent: approximately 1157 feet.

DAY 2

BROUGHTON TO SALISBURY

Please meet at 9.00am in Salisbury (car park details to follow) from where we will travel to the Broughton Village Hall car park for a prompt 10.00am start. We head out through the village past the church graveyard, which has a circular brick built dovecote capable of housing 500 birds, ready for the first climb of the day to reach Smith’s Planation. The route then undulates before reaching Roman Road at Buckholt Farm. The road is actually named Roman Road and it is said that one can still hear the sound of Roman soldiers marching along it.

The route stays on Roman Road and the Monarch’s Way in order to reach Middle Winterslow from where we briefly head south to the outskirts of West Winterslow before heading across farmland to the village of Pitton.

The woods of Fairoak Copse and Warners Copse should provide a shaded approach to the entrance to the remains of Clarendon Palace itself where there should be time to stop for a look around the ruins. The route then drops gently down to the outskirts of Salisbury, passing by the ancient settlement of Milford before entering the Salisbury itself and making our way to the West Door of the Cathedral.