Castle Combe and By Brook

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Our view

"Through the wooded By Brook valley from a famous picture-book village."

Walk directions

Leave the car park via the steps and turn right. At the T-junction, turn right and follow the lane into Castle Combe. Keep left at the Market Cross, cross the By Brook and continue along the road. Take the waymarked path across the bridge on your left.

Pass through a kissing gate and follow the path uphill and then beside the right-hand fence above the valley (Macmillan Way). Beyond an open area, wind gently through woodland to a stone stile and gate. Cross a further stile and descend into the hamlet of Long Dean.

Where the lane bears left by Bybrook House, follow the track right to cross the river bridge. At a mill house, keep right and follow the sunken bridleway uphill to a gate. Shortly enter sloping pasture and follow the enclosed path around the top edge. Bear left through a kissing gate to follow a worn path through the field to a kissing gate that leads to a lane.

Turn left and descend to the A420 at Ford. Turn right along the pavement and shortly turn right again into Park Lane. (If you want to visit The White Hart Inn in Ford village, take the road ahead on your left, signed ‘Colerne’.) Climb the gravel track and take the footpath left through a gate.

Keep right through pasture and continue through trees to a water meadow in the valley bottom. Turn left, follow the path to a kissing gate and cross a stream. Steeply ascend the grassy slope ahead of you, bearing left beyond some trees towards a waymarker post. Follow the footpath along the top of the field to reach a stile and gate, then walk through the woodland until you come to a gate and the road.

Turn left at the immediate fork. Keep to the road for 0.5 miles (800m) and take the signposted bridleway right, on a sharp left-hand bend. Follow the track, then, just before a gate, keep right downhill on a sunken path to come to a footbridge over Broadmead Brook.

In 30yds (27m), go through the kissing gate on your right and follow the footpath close to the river. Go through another kissing gate and emerge opposite Nettleton Mill House. Go right to a hidden gate. Walk beside the stream and enter a golf course.

Turn right along the metalled track, cross the bridge and turn immediately right again. After 50yds (46m), bear left to follow a parallel path running below the golf course fairway. Walk beside a wall to reach a gate on your right. Drop down to a metalled drive and keep ahead back into Castle Combe. Turn left at the Market Cross and retrace your steps.

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Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Field and woodland paths and tracks, metalled lanes, many stiles

Landscape - Wooded river valley and village streets

Dog friendliness - Keep under control across pasture and golf course

Parking - Car park on Dunns Lane, just off B4039 at Upper Castle Combe

Toilets en route - The Street in Castle Combe

About the walk

Since being voted ‘the prettiest village in England’ in 1962, there have been more visitors to Castle Combe, more photographs taken of it and more words written about it than any other village in the county. Nestling deep in a streamthreaded combe (valley), just a mile (1.6km) – and a world away –...