Tower and Town, March 2021

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A Good Walk

Head for the canal halfway between Great Bedwyn and Crofton - there is space to park off the road by the railway line. Cross the railway line (taking care) and the canal, and head south-west along the towpath towards Crofton. This is a nice and relatively quiet stretch, and the reed beds on the far bank are great places for spotting reed and sedge warbler in the early summer - sightings of kingfisher and wagtail are also possible.

Go past the Crofton lock and turn left off the towpath across a low bridge which takes you over the outflow from Wilton Water. Follow the path that runs along the edge of the lake where you will catch sight of a range of waterfowl - heron, egret, cormorant (often perching in the branches of a dead tree on the opposite bank), all sorts of duck and, if you're lucky, little grebe.

Halfway along the lake the land on your left becomes open field. This is corvid country and wood pigeon land, where you will often see red kite and buzzard circling overhead, the former sometimes swooping down quite low looking for carrion or small mammals. In winter time flocks of linnet can be seen, perching in lines on the power cables overhead, or flying acrobatically backwards and forwards across the open field.

Ahead of you are the outlying houses of Wilton. Head for the tree at the left-hand corner of the hedge in front of you, and there pick up the path leftwards up across the field to a gap in the hedge at the top. Drop down onto the lane, turn right, and after about fifty yards take the path off to the left up through the hedgerow and straight across another open field, heading for a way-marked gap in the hedge.

As you leave the field you come into an area of rough scrub where you might well see the likes of stonechat, whitethroat and blackcap. Head straight to the woodland ahead of you (this is Wilton Brail), and after a short distance in the wood the path opens out into a wide track leading downhill, a good place for woodpecker. Where the track sweeps round to the right and heads uphill, head half left through a gate out of the wood. Follow the divide between two fields straight down to the canal bridge and railway crossing where you started, probably about 90 minutes earlier.

David Du Croz