Alpacas and Donkeys

From Washingpool Lane bus stop about 5K

Follow the bus along the grass verge until you come to a stile just past a stone farmhouse. Over the stile and through a hunting gate, turn left and follow the field boundary past the paddock that usually houses donkeys.

The footpath goes to the right of a farm building and continues in the same direction with the hedge on your left. When you come to a wood (Gatten’s Brake) turn left and then right Through a gate/over a stile and follow the edge of the wood to a stile/footbridge.

Turn left and follow the hedge on your left through three field boundaries. There are views to the right over the Ladden Vale.

At the end you come to a stile into a field, where you need to go just to the right of straight on to a Bristol gate. Walk straight ahead to a kissing gate onto a redundant section of Old Church Road. There used to be cat’s eyes marking the middle of the road, but I think they have all gone now!

Turn left and left again past the tower of Old St Helen’s Church. Continue along the driveway until you see a footpath on the other side of the road.

Go through the kissing gate, and follow the right hand hedge through (or round) a couple of kissing gates. (This hedge was formerly the boundary or pale of the Alveston Deer Park.)

Through the last kissing gate, you will see a house ahead – formerly called The Loans – whose current owner has changed the name to The Manor House. The owner has also attempted to divert the diagonal path across the field onto an enclosed path around the edge of the field. Time will tell whether they have succeeded.

In any case, you go through a gate to the left of the house and follow a path through a wood and past some allotments to emerge on a road.

Turn left and then right to visit the Alpaca Farm and Cafe.

After an optional coffee stop – take the diagonal path through the Alpacas from near new St Helen’s Church.

At the far end, look for a kissing gate into the next field. Take the path ahead towards the corner of the hedge on your left. Follow the hedge to the end of the field and turn left through a kissing gate.

Follow the fence on your right to another kissing gate into an enclosed path. At the end, turn right through a Bristol gate onto The Street.

Cross the road to a kissing gate and make your way ahead through some paddocks to a stile hidden behind some brambles. Over the stile, go straight ahead to a gap in a hedge and turn left to a stile onto the A38.

Cross carefully to an enclosed path through to Old Gloucester Road.

Cross the road to another kissing gate into another enclosed path that leads to a stile into an arable field. Take the diagonal path to a kissing gate with views over Thornbury to the Severn Vale.

Descend the arable field to a gap next to an overgrown stile under a tree that brings you into the field behind the Leisure Centre. Follow the right hand hedge round to a gap into the field that serves as an overflow car park. Follow the left hand hedge last the Leisure Centre car park, Krunch’s Pod and the Skate Park to the junction with Vilner Lane.

Cross the lane into the cycle path with Thornbury Farm Wood on your left and the Industrial Park on the right. Go straight ahead past the wood and Tesco car park and through the tunnel under the former railway station to emerge in Streamleaze.

Turn right and then left to find Rock Street, with its car parks, bus stops and access to the St Mary Centre.