Description
(S/E) Turn right out of the pub and right again at the green, walk down through the village (Holly House B&B will be on your right if you are going the right way). On the left of the street, after 250 yards, pass the Longwell (spring). Continue on for 100 yards to a junction where the road swings to the right. When the road swings away down to the right, turn left up the small incline by the Post Box into Nash's Lane and continue. You'll have houses on your left and should be heading up a short road that bends to the right about 300 yards on.
(1) Keep walking up the road, out past the farm (on your left) after the bend and out onto a gravel track.
Keep on that track for 10-15 mins - you'll walk out to some farm sheds, down a stoney hill and past the parish boundary marker. You head through the gate and the track bends uphill and to the left, then to the right and flattens out.
(2) You are now in Foxcote Estate. Keep going, there will be some farm sheds and a windsock on the right as you walk. The owner of the estate helicopters in. The track turns to a tarmac'd single track, head along this, down through a dip (house on the left then on the right) and keep on the road. You'll reach a small depression with a cattle grid and a bridleway gate, go straight through and keep on the track that forks to the right.
Foxcote Manor is behind the hedge on the right. Keep following the track, and at the driveway to the manor head slightly left and keep going to the next cattle grid/gate. Look back for a view of the Manor. Keep walking up the drive until the very end - there is a button and the gate will open electronically (or you can hop the short wall).
(3) Turn left, and walk about 500 yards to a "cross roads" (two farm tracks meet at the road at the same place), heading down the hill. Turn left and head up the hill. Keep walking straight and you'll come to a bridleway gate. Lovely views of the village of Ilmington below you to the right. On a good day you can see Birmingham and Coventry in the distance off to the right.
(4) Keep heading along the path and towards the 2 radio antenae at Nebsworth, on the top of Ebrington Hill.
As you emerge onto the road, pick up the bridleway path on the other side and set off up a short sharpish hill to the next gate. Go through the gate and walk along the path emerging at another lane - with a telecoms uplink station on the right.
(5) Walk down the track to the left of the telecoms station, and follow it all the way down the hill to Hidcote Manor. Again stunning views out in front of you - including the Malvern Hills off to the left. As you arrive at Hidcote, head into the cafe in the garden shop, if you fancy a break, it's open to the public without having to pay an admission charge.
(6) Leave Hidcote Manor and turn right down the road into the village (if facing away from the Manor/Manor house is behind you), turn left if facing the Manor House. You will walk past a thatched cottage on your left and a duck pond on your left and the thatched cottages of the hamlet on your right. Head out across the field towards a large chestnut (?) tree in the middle of the field, and follow the path on and down through the gate in the gully at the bottom. Head off across the field - aiming about 1 o'clock to hit the gate on the other side of the field at Hidcote Boyce.
(7)Walk out into another lovely little hamlet called Hidcote Boyce, and turn left at the green/triangle to walk out of the village on the lane. Walk all the way up the lane, past the farm on the left. When you reach the junction, head over the style and out into the field. Lovely views to the right of Broadway Tower, Chipping Campden and the Malvern Hills out in the distance.
(8) Follow the footpath across 3 fields emerging on the road, which you cross and pick up the path on the otherside (signposted and with a style). Head out across the field at about 2-3 o'clock and over another style. Walk across an abandoned point to point course/field (old horse jumps) and down to the stile in the corner. Follow the path, with a recreation ground on your right, emerging back into the village of Ebrington.
(S/E) Turn right and head to the pub.... well done, you've earned it.