I’d been living here for more than twenty five years before I discovered this walk, which is totally and utterly ridiculous and shows how quick we are to look far ahead and not under our nose. This is an amazing green space on the outskirt of Cheltenham and I’m probably teaching grandma to suck eggs in talking about this, but perhaps some of you are as unaware as I was… also bear with me, today I was tired and didn’t fancy driving anywhere. The weather was glorious and very enjoyable a walk it was too. It is a great place for dogs and children because they can run and run without you worrying about cars/roads/phaesants/hares/etc … not that I’m suggesting that your children are going to chase pheasants and hares… Oh and jogging. Good for jogging too.
Basically the walk takes you around the back of the racecourse which is interesting as it gives you a different perspective on the place. I have been once when a race was on and Murphy had a big fright hearing all those horses galloping at full speed in his direction… some of the jumps are very close to the fence. I’ve been told that most of the time it is closed during races though, so you might want to check.
Also – technical note – bins… they are at the entrance and/or there’s a solitary one in the middle of the fields on the other side of the course. You might be carrying a fragrant bag for a while.
Murph and I parked in the main racecourse car park, but you can enter the area from a couple of different places: in Prestbury (Park Lane and Spring Lane), from the racecourse car park past the steam train station and from Southam Lane too. In the right photo I had just released Murphy and he’s sprinting like a maniac without a plan… give him 30 yards and then he’ll be back. It’s a quirk of his.
On the left the racetrack, on the right a stream… and you know what that means, right?
Carry on following the path till you get to fields…
… just enjoy the space. You can’t get lost! There is also a really cute pond near here, but we were running out of time (you don’t want to keep my sister waiting… trust me).
We turned right past the Hawthorne, crossed the field and walked back coasting the hedge on the other side. That loop is about 3km.
Murphy's view: I love this place folks! I can run my fastest, I meet lots of other dogs, and the stream is fantastic! Also I like to disappear into the hedges and have a good sniff while keeping an eye on the humans, sometimes they disappear when we go into woods, but here I always know where they are!
the-wanderings.com 