Lansdown on the Level (Bathscape Walk 18)

From the back of the car park, head towards the toilets and other single-storey buildings, pass by the right-hand side of these under a small group of trees until you meet the tree line ahead of you on the field boundary. Turn right to keep the open playing fields and sports pitches on your right and the trees on your left. Follow this boundary all the way along the edge, enjoying the views to your left between the trees.

Eventually you will meet a wooden gate at a small road 1. Carefully cross the road and through the metal gate immediately opposite. You are now on Bath Racecourse land, please stay on the public rights of way and do not walk on the racecourse itself. If you have a dog with you, please keep them close by and off the race track, which has a white barrier all the way around it.

At the waymark post, take the path straight ahead across the field. The race track will be on your right and a dry-stone wall will be on your left.

Continue along the path, marked intermittently with waymark posts until a short steep slope. Go up the steps, then turn left and go through a gate to skirt close to the edge of the race track. Once around the wide curve the path widens, continue straight ahead to a waymarked post on the left. The waymark post shows two footpaths, take the right-hand path diagonally across the field. Eventually you will reach Prospect Stile View Point. There is a topograph here which points out the main features in the view. From here you will now follow part of the Cotswold Way and can use the Cotswold Way waymark discs and acorns to guide you.

Turn your back on the view, turn left and take the grassy path along the field edge, with the hedge on your left. Ahead you will see a taller white barrier of the race course track. Continue past this until you reach a metal gate at the field boundary.

To make this walk shorter, you can start to loop back from here 2. Turn right, follow the waymarked path and walk along the edge of the field with a white metal barrier on your left, this later becomes plastic.

You will have the race track on your right until you meet a metal field gate with a pedestrian gate next to it.

Go through the gate and onto the hard standing around the stables. Follow the tarmac drive around the buildings, with a fence on your right and through a parking area. Pass in front of the main entrance into the Racecourse.

Turn right to walk carefully along the main drive, taking care of golf being played on both sides, until you reach a wooden fence either side of the road and a waymarked post on the left. Turn right onto the grassy path. Now pick up the instructions from after point 5.

To continue on the longer route, go through the gate and follow the path along the edge turning right at the end, following the Cotswold Way signs and staying on the edge of the field. The path then turns left and onto a raised path between two fields. You are now in the centre of what is believed to be an Iron Age Camp, most likely a stock enclosure.

The path starts to head downhill to meet a field gate with a metal pedestrian gate next to it. Pass through the gate and continue downhill with far reaching views in front of you towards Bristol and the River Severn. At the waymark post take a sharp right, keeping the views on your left until you meet another field and pedestrian gate. Continue straight through onto the grassy track, then when it meets a stoned track, bear right onto it to head uphill towards another gate with a bench next to it. Go through the gate and onto the track beyond, which runs along the edge of the golf course. Pass Pipley Woods on your left and Pipley Barn on your right. Shortly after you will see a small collection of sculptures made from scrap metal by David Michael Morse.

Continue along the track until you meet a crossroads in front of a dry-stone wall. From here you can return by turning right and following the directions from point 3. Or, to add on another smaller loop, turn left staying on the Cotswold Way.

** Follow the bridleway straight up the edge of the golf course. There will be a small wood to your right. Just beyond the end of the wood there is a metal field gate with a permissive bridleway sign on the gate and wall near the end that opens. Please note, keep dogs on a lead through this field. Go through the gate and bear right to the stone field boundary. Head along the boundary in a straight line all the way to the gate on the other side. Go through the gate for more vast views over towards Bristol.

Turn right and follow the path along, with views on your left until it dips down and then up slightly to meet another field gate. Along this path you will see coloured posts commemorating the English Civil War Battle of Lansdown fought on 5th July 1643. Go though the gate and follow the fenced in path until it opens out onto a minor road. Turn right and follow the tarmac up to a metal gate on your left, opposite the Avon Fire & Rescue Service entrance.

Go through the gate and follow the gravel path though an area of scrubby grassland, which runs parallel to a minor road on your right. At the end go through the metal gate and onto the minor road. Turn left and take care as you follow it round to the right. You are now going to leave the Cotswold Way, so ignore any further waymarks you might see for it. Stay on the road as it then bears left.

Just before you meet the main road (Lansdown Road) look for a waymarked path on your right 4. Take the path following the most trodden route diagonally across the field to a gap in the wooden fence. Go through the gap to cross a minor road and then pick up the path on the other side, passing a fenced off area of hardstanding on your left.

Take the path along the edge of a woodland, with a drystone wall on your left. Follow this path all the way back down to where this loop started at a crossroads and turn left.

3 Walk in a straight line along the edge of the golf course on a grassy path until you meet the driveway in to the Racecourse. Cross the drive 5. Follow the grassy path down towards the golf club car park and buildings. There will be a line of trees on your right and a line of white posts and a practise area on your left until you pop out in the corner of the car park.

Carefully cross the golf course car park, passing in front of the clubhouse, which is open to all for refreshments, until you reach the grass area on the other side. Follow the grassy track straight ahead across this meadow which contains two noticeable prehistoric round barrows which are both scheduled ancient monuments. The field is called Fair Field and is where the annual Lansdown Fair was held (though it must have been across a bigger area) with the sales of horses, cheese and the like as well as boxing matches and games. Go through the gate and follow the path round the corner and for a short distance parallel to the main road, with a fence on your right.

Carefully cross the Charlcombe Inn car park (or stop in for a well deserved drink!) and look for the tall finger post in the corner beyond the building entrance. Go through the metal gate and back on to the Racecourse land. Take the path to the left of the sign and walk parallel to the wall, with the race track on your right. Follow the curve of the track round along the boundary of the field, away from the main road, until you find the metal gate back onto the minor road which you entered by 1.

Carefully cross the road to the gate on the other side and then retrace your footsteps around the playing fields and sports pitches back to the start with views of Beckford’s Tower ahead.

If you would like to make use of the accessible section of this route, please park at the Racecourse (on non event days). Parking here is free but the racecourse asks that you call in advance to let them know of your plans. Parking here is not open to the general public but has been arranged to enable an accessible option. Bath Racecourse 01225 424609.

** From here, head up the drive you have just driven down. Find a surfaced bridleway on your left just before the gateway across the drive.

Turn left onto to the bridleway and follow it up to a crossroads. You should have a drystone wall on your right and the golf course on your left. Then pick up the route description from until you find your way back to this point. Then return the way you have just come.

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