Start: Bus stop outside Fighting Cocks, pub, Godshill. Grid ref. SU 175 149, Postcode SP6 2LL
(S/E) Starting at the bus stop head downhill past the village hall. Turn left at the waymarker and through a kissing gate into a field, following the hedge on your left. Go through the metal gate in the field corner and turn right following the hedge, now on your right.
(1) Leave the field through a wooden gate, follow an enclosed footpath and turn left towards Sandy Balls Holiday Park. At the next waymarker turn right through a gate and right again following the road along the edge of a campsite. Continue straight ahead where the road becomes a gravel footpath. Pass utility works on your left and follow the path through an old beech wood and along the edge of Frankenbury Fort.
(2) Follow the path as it bends left downhill and turn right off the path through a waymarked metal gate into a wood. In spring see if you can spot primroses, bluebells, wood anemone and creeping buttercups. Go through another gate. Please keep dogs under close control to reduce disturbance to wildlife and livestock grazing on the pastures.
(3) As you emerge from the woodland turn left onto a gravel track towards Folds Farm. At the track junction turn right to join the Avon Valley Path for a short section. Continue straight ahead through the farm and over a stream. At the waymarker, cross over a cattle grid and follow the gravel track straight ahead to join the road.
Optional detour: You can now turn left and follow the road uphill along the ridge to Castle Hill fort. It was built in 1148 on the site of an earlier Iron Age hill fort and you can still see its medieval earthworks in the form of a ringwork and bailey. Then continue to Castle Hill car park for panoramic views west across the Avon Valley and beyond to the chalk hills of Wiltshire.
(4) Turn right and follow the road for 80m and take your first right down a gravel track alongside houses. Continue following this lower track, which becomes an enclosed grassy track past a cottage. Ahead is a wooden bridge with a stile across a stream flowing alongside a meadow.
(5) Cross over and follow the path alongside the stream and over a stile into the next field. Go straight on across two more fields with gates. At the third waymarked gate turn right onto a gravel track and through a wide gate uphill to the track junction. At the waymarker go straight ahead uphill through a wood. Turn right at the field gate and retrace your steps alongside the hedge to the first waymarker. Turn right through the gate to re-join the road and back uphill to the Fighting Cocks pub.(S/E)