Cotswold Little Explorers

(Pink Route)

NEED TO KNOW

3.5 k / 2.2 Miles

PARKING: National Trust Car Park, GL12 7PZ. £3 or free for members.

FACILITIES: Toilets and takeaway café with marquee covered seating area. (Entrance fee to Newark Park Estate applicable, click here for details.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE? 2 hours with the kids stopping for snack and play breaks.

ACCESIBILTITY: This is a hilly circular walking route with some moderately steep inclines and declines. Rocky and uneven terrain and some steep slopes, not suitable for pushchairs.

BEST FOR: Kids age 4 +.

HIGHLIGHTS: Walk through beautiful woodland with uninterrupted views of the Ozleworth valley and Cotswold countryside. Explore Newark House (depending on opening times check website here for details), and the beautiful gardens and pond of the estate set upon the hillside. This estate has a lovely children’s play field and woodland play area for little ones.

STEP BY STEP:

The pink route starts at the café pavilion just past Newark house. This route follows the original estate carriage drive road. Follow the wide gravel path down towards the woodland. All the trails of Newark park are marked with colour coded way markers. Follow the pink arrows. The path will lead you down hill through the woodland and under some large ancient trees.

The path forks left to enter the formal gardens and play areas. Ignore these and continue to follow the pink way markers down hill, enjoying the lovely views that open up in front of you.

At the furthest point the wood gives way to a grassy valley, which the National Trust are currently working on returning back to an orchard. Here the path starts to head uphill. Keep following the pink way markers.

You will eventually complete a loop and start retracting your steps back up the gravel path towards the house and café.

When you reach the path leading to the formal gardens and play area on your right, take it and explore the gardens set on different levels of the hillside.

At the bottom of the hill you will find the woodland play area, with willow tunnels and wooden carvings, and a wide open children’s playfield with plenty of space to run, jump and roll. there is a fab wooden climbing frame here too.

Continue along the path and you will come to a picturesque pond and a summer house. Continue along the path and you will head up the bank of the hill back towards the house, café and car park.

VARIATIONS:

There is a shorter Orange Route, which is a quick loop through the woodland surrounding the house (currently closed for track improvement. Check website here for further updates)

The Purple route is 4.8 k / 3 miles, and takes you deeper down in to the valley and then ascends the grassland by the side of the woods back up to the house.

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