This page give further event details of the hiking weekend away - YHA Cholderton near Stonehenge, Wiltshire, to help you to prepare for the weekend. This is to be read in addition to the event details on Meetup The starting and ending date and time are shown in the event details on Meetup.

What we’ll do

Spend a weekend hiking near the Stonehenge World Heritage site and on downland near the Wiltshire/Hampshire border. Leave early Saturday morning, hike Saturday and Sunday, return Sunday evening. Stay Saturday night at YHA Cholderton.

For most weekends away, we would normally leave Friday evening but for this fairly local weekend, we are making an early start Saturday morning. We plan to arrive at Cholderton around 10:00 a.m. then drive to nearby Amesbury for Saturday’s hike.

COST AND PAYMENT

The advertised cost of £22.50 is for one night bed only budget accommodation in single-gender shared room (typically 4 - 6 beds, possibly more). A 10% YHA members’ discount has already been applied to this price but you do not need individual membership of YHA (England and Wales). The price when we actually booked was lower so there will be some small refunds. The prices including YHA members’ discount were as follows: 2-bed room (1 male, 1 female) £21.60 per person, 6-bed ensuite room (6 females) £19.90 per person, one additional female dorm space shared with others outside our group, £16 per person (sale price).

There is no separate event charge but you are invited to make a voluntary donation of £2 per day (total £4) towards the running costs of this Meetup Group.

Not included:

  • Breakfast or other meals
  • Transport

TRANSPORT TO CHOLDERTON

  • Own car or car sharing, 95 mls each way plus 15 mls for local trips = 205 mls total. For car sharing, suggested contribution to driver is 205 mls @ 7.5p = £15.38 return for each passenger plus a share of any parking costs. Meet outside Barnet Everyman at junction of Station Road and Great North Road EN5 1AB at 08:00 Saturday, not High Barnet station as previously mentioned. There are no parking restrictions at any time in the service road in front of Barnet Everyman so you could leave a car there over the weekend if you like.

If you travel independently, meet us outside YHA Cholderton 10:00 a.m. Saturday.

CAR PARKING

There is free car parking at YHA Cholderton but we will need to pay in Amesbury on Saturday.

ACCOMMODATION

We stay at YHA Cholderton, on a Rare Breeds Farm in Wiltshire near Stonehenge World Heritage site

Beacon House,
Amesbury Road,
Cholderton,
Wiltshire
SP4 0EW

OS Grid Ref: SU209423 Lat/Long: 51.180234, -1.701599

MEALS

The price for this weekend includes one night accommodation bed only. You can either have breakfast for an extra charge or you can prepare your own breakfast in the self-catering, communal kitchen.

You can prepare your own packed lunch in the self-catering, communal kitchen or you can order a YHA packed lunch.

Evening meals are available at Cholderton or it would be possible to eat out at a pub. There is a pub in Cholderton village about 1.5 km away but we haven’t booked anything and it is advisable to drive there rather than walk as the road is unlit and has no pavement. Alternatively, you can prepare your own evening meal Saturday evening in the self-catering, communal kitchen.

There are no shops nearby to buy food for Sunday breakfast, Saturday and Sunday packed lunches or Saturday evening meal, so if you prepare your own food, you will need to take all food with you.

ARRIVAL TIME SATURDAY

Reception at YHA Cholderton opens 17:00, closes 22:00. When we arrive Saturday morning, we won’t be able to check in for Saturday evening so we need to check in after the hike on Saturday afternoon.

As we are not booked in for Friday night, we don’t have a right to go into the hostel and use the facilities Saturday morning although if we ask then they will probably give us permission. We won’t have access to the self-catering kitchen to put our food in the fridge until we check in Saturday evening so it is advisable to bring food that will keep.

When we book in, you will need to take some form of ID, (see below).

CANCELLATIONS

In the event of any cancellation, we can’t get any refund from YHA except on a dormitory space because we can#t cancel individual beds in private rooms. If you cancel, then a refund would only be available if someone else of the same gender takes your place.

HIKING PLANS

These are the hikes that are planned but the plans may be changed if necessary, e.g. due to adverse weather conditions. The routes were devised by South Herts Hikers. The Wikiloc maps are interactive and you can select satellite view or map view (Openstreetmap recommended). You can zoom in for a more detailed view of the route. You can also download a GPS file of the route to use with another GPS app such as Viewranger.

Saturday

From Cholderton, drive 5 mls to Amesbury, circular hike Woodhenge - Stonehenge*, Normanton, Amesbury 9.6 miles, 15.6 km.
*We pass about 100 m from Stonehenge on open access land which gives a distant view for free (see photo). For a closer look, you need to walk 2 km to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, pay £19.50 (£17.50 if booked in advance and free to members of National Trust and English Heritage). Come back to visit Stonehenge on a shuttle bus then walk back to Amesbury independently.

Total distance 9.75 mls (15.7 km) with some hills, 116 m (380 ft) of ascent and descent. For the route please see: www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/amesbury-woodhenge-stonehenge-normanton-loop-v1-41697775

Sunday

This hike is on downland on the Wiltshire-Hampshire border. Drive 3 km and park near the Boot Inn, High Street, Shipton Bellinger, Tidworth, Hampshire, SP9 7UF (not in pub car park). Go via Ashdown Copse and Furze Hill to Kimpton. Lunch stop at The Welcome Stranger pub, Kimpton, Andover, Hampshire, SP11 8PG. Return via Pickford Hill and Shipton Wood to Shipton Bellinger.

Total distance 13.55 km 8.42 mls with some hills, 172 m (564 ft) of ascent and descent. For the route please see: www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/shipton-bellinger-kimpton-loop-v1-41904787

The Salisbury Plain area includes large areas of land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that is used for military training. The hike has been planned to use public rights of way and some of these cross land that is marked as “Managed Access” on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map. Managed Access land is used for military training but this does not involve closing public rights of way temporarily at certain times. For further details please see the Ramblers guide to walking on military sites

Before leaving for home on Sunday, we may have time for afternoon tea in the café at YHA Cholderton.

Maps

If you want to bring Ordnance Survey maps to follow the routes, OS Landranger (1:50,000) Sheet 184 covers both days. For the more detailed O.S. Explorer 1:25,000 maps, you would need two sheets, 130 and 131 to cover both days. These may be available from a public library.

PLACES OF INTEREST

Stonehenge
Woodhenge
YHA Cholderton

What to bring

For the weekend

Overnight bag or rucksack with wash kit, night clothes, change of clothes. Towels are not provided at YHA accommodation. For further details, please see South Herts Hikers Info Page ‘C’ Staying in YHA Accommodation.

For the hikes

You need hiking boots with good grip (footpaths may be steep, slippery or muddy in places), suitable outdoor clothing for weather conditions including an extra layer to put on for outdoor stops and a waterproof jacket in case it rains. Drink and packed lunch essential. Further details on South Herts Hikers Info Page ‘A’ Lowland Hikes

Important to know

Mobile phone coverage

Mobile network operators quote figures for network coverage such as 98% but this is a percentage of the population, not a percentage of the land area, which is much less. In rural areas where we like to go hiking, mobile phone network coverage may be patchy and in some places non-existent. This is caused by hilly terrain, deep valleys and few mobile phone masts on the tops of the hills in national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty!

Even where there is mobile coverage, it may only be outdoors, not inside a building with thick stone walls and it may only be GSM (2G) not 3G or 4G. This means that the Meetup app or anything else that requires fairly fast Internet access may not be usable if it only has a GSM data service available.

The Meetup app only works when it has an Internet connection, otherwise you can’t even read previously received Meetup messages. We recommend that the most reliable form of mobile phone communication on a weekend away is SMS text message. The event organiser will give a mobile phone number to everyone on the weekend.

ID Required

You need to bring a suitable form of ID, see Section 3 of YHA Booking terms and conditions section 3.

Details last updated Mon, 20 Jan 2020, 12:23 PM