Walk 9 - Keynes to Keynes

6 mile walk.

Opposite the Long House in High Road walk up Church Walk, taking the left hand side of the River Thames beside Mill House. Follow the left bank of the Thames upstream for about 1.25 miles You pass the Pumping Station on your left, cross the main road, and carry on past Flood Hatches and Culli's Bridge. You pass Freeth's wood on your left. You reach the county boundary at the end of the wood, where another footpath leads to the left.

Carrying on, you eventually cross the river (both nightingale and kingfisher inhabit this area) and come onto a track which becomes a lane at Lower Mill Farm. Overwintering wildfowl may be seen on the lake to your right. Shortly after the farm, the Thames' course diverges to the left, but we rejoin it later. Turn left onto the main Spine Road (#1), crossing the Thames again, then right at the Neigh Bridge sign. Just past the car park (#3) entrance take the path on the left (way-marked) and the lake of Neigh Bridge Country Park comes into view. Again follow with the River Thames on your right which now meanders through wood and fields. This is a location where you may see a kingfisher. The lake on your left was notorious for being the dumping ground for the corpse of an underworld character. Chalky White!

At the end of the Country Park a substantial wooden bridge takes you onto the right bank and you follow the left-hand field boundary. A kissing gate takes you into the next field and past Kemble Mill. Don't take the path on your left (although 2 minutes' diversionary exploration is worthwhile) but carry on along the edge of the field, keeping with the Thames footpath signs. For a shorter walk, there are three footpaths off to the right which cut across the loop of the main walk. The first is just before the kissing gate, the second cuts across the field soon after Kemble Mill, and the third starts over a new footbridge before Old Mill Farm.

For the longer walk, follow the Thames path over two stiles, past Old Mill Farm and a footpath to the left, then over a small bridge crossing a ditch to the field with the wind pump. For the energetic the continuation to Ewen (and a stop at the Wild Duck) is recommended, but our described walk continues by turning right, leaving the Thames Path, following the Glos. C.C. signs for approximately 200 yards then right again over the stile and down the side of the field with the church ahead of you.

Cut across the left-hand field to the gate with the stile, then diagonally across the next field to another stile and continue on roughly the same line to the far right-hand corner of the next field. Go through the gate, turn left and immediately right into the main village street. Wander down the centre of Somerford Keynes (hoping the Bakers Arms is open for a rest) taking the first turn left, signpost to Ashton Keynes and Cricklade. Soon after the pavement ends you come to Macks Farm on the right.

After the farm, climb over the stile and go across the field, over the Spine Road (#2) again onto the landfill area. Keeping the same general direction as across the previous field (there are some posts marking the line), you will eventually walk between two lakes. Turn right down the far side of the lake keeping the hedge to your left (it is currently diverted, but will revert to the other side of the hedge when gravelling is finished). This is an excellent area for wild flowers - scabious, harebell and wild phlox. Eventually way mark signs direct you through a gap in the hedge, back into Wiltshire. Turn right and follow the track round the bottom of the Cirencester Water Ski Club lake in the direction of Ashton Keynes church. As the track veers tight, some post-and-wire fencing marks where the footpath runs off to the right. Taking this you eventually come to a stile and footbridge over the Thames. Turn left and retrace your steps to the start.

Variations. You can split this long walk into two shorter ones:

1.Follow the main walk until you reach the Spine Road at #1, turn right until you reach a
stile on each side of (he road, turn right and follow the walk home from #2.

2.Take your car along the Spine Road West to the Neigh Bridge Country Park car park
and start the walk at #3. When you are walking back through Somerford Keynes village,
take the first right back to the car park.