Walk 6

Distances: Five and a quarter miles (easy)

OS Maps: Explorer 169 Landranger 173

Start: Coate Water car park (SU 177827) (SN3 1PT)

Bus: Many bus routes pass the entrace, which is off Coate Water roundabout at the junction of Queens Drive, Marlborough Road and Dorcan Way.

Directions:

Coate Water, Richard Jeffries Parkway,

Buckhurst Field & Lawn Woods

5% miles (easy)

Explorer 169 Landranger 173

Coate Water Car Park. (SU 177827) (SN3 IPT)

Many bus routes pass the entrance, which is Off Coate Water

roundabout at the junction of Queens Drive, Marlborough Road

and Dorcan Way.

1. Leave the car park and follow the sign "PEDESTRIANS & CYCLE EXIT TO

MARLBOROUGH ROAD" Take two underpasses, bending right as you leave

the second one, and then turn left onto Shaftesbury Avenue. After a short

distance, cross the road onto a footpath and keep straight on until a footbridge

on the right is reached. Take this and follow the path round the lake. Keep

ahead over a junction, ignoring a bridge on the left, and continue on this path,

passing a children's play area set in the grass on your right. At the far end

of the path, turn left over a bridge and immediately right onto another path.

At a fork, bear left and continue onto Marlowe Avenue (a continuation of

Shaftesbury Avenue).

2. Cross the road and walk along Marlowe Avenue, passing a convent and then

Holy Family Primary School on your right, until you reach Twyford Close (by

a sheltered housing complex). Turn left into the close and follow the sign to

Old Town. At a junction of paths, turn right and continue towards the blue Old

Town sign ahead. At the next junction turn left and shortly left again; then first

right. Having passed a skate park on the right and Walcot Nursery on the left,

enter Sadler Walk and continue to Queens Drive.

3. Cross Queens Drive at the pelican crossing and turn right and almost

immediately left onto a footpath/cycle path. Follow this to the end, keeping

the school on your right. Turn left into South View Avenue and at the junction

turn right into Upham Road. Cross this road and, after a short distance, turn

left into Parklands Road. When the road bends to the right, keep straight

ahead onto a path in The Lawn and continue uphill, with Christ Church on your

right At the top, bear left and follow the path downhill (with the old Holy Rood

Church on your right) and then turn right towards the lakes Pass between

the two lakes and walk left alongside the lower lake. Just after rounding the

bottom end of this lake, take a small path on the right that leads downhill

between the trees into Cardigan Close (an established housing estate). Then

turn first right into Wigmore Avenue and onto Windsor Road.

4. Turn right and cross Windsor Road, then left at the shops into Guildford

Avenue and continue until you reach Sandringham Road. Cross onto a

footpath/cycle path and turn left into Buckingham Road. At the bottom, take

a footpath on the right. signposted to the hospital and running parallel to

Queens Drive. Continue along in front of the houses and return to Coate

Water via the underpass.

Refreshments: Café at Coate Water

  • Everyone is welcome to simply join in one of the Swindon Ramblers walks or visit the website on www.wiltsswindonramblers.org.uk
  • Pictures and walk courtesy of Swindon and North East Ramblers