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St Catherines Hill Walk

This is just one route up St. Catherine’s Hill. It starts and ends at a convenient car park. There are other routes and, once at the summit, the walk can be extended to include the East side of the Hill. The Hill has been in use for 3000 years and the summit with the Miz-maze, the ruined Norman Chapel buried under the Beech trees, and the deep Iron age ramparts, affords perhaps the best view of Winchester, the Cathedral and St Cross Church, from this side of the valley.
Here are 45 pictures to convince you that the effort is worthwhile.

Car Park by the Itchen Navigation - Top of Garnier Road

Part of the Itchen Navigation, used by Winchester College for rowing and sculling.

Start your walk here.

Tunnel under the disused railway

The first of a pair of kissing gates that mark the old Winchester Bypass route

1. Car Park

2. Itchen Nav'gn

3. Start here

4. Tunnel

5. Kissing Gate 1

This area is managed for the benefit of butterflys and other grasland species

A view of the reclaimed by-pass route looking South.

A view of the reclaimed by-pass route looking North

The second of a pair of kissing gates that mark the old Winchester Bypass route

From here on the land is owned by Winchester College.

6. By Pass

7. By Pass S

8. By Pass N

9. Kissing Gate 2

10. Easy path

Follow the well marked path

Going North and getting steeper

Start climbing the steps

More steps... About 111 I think.

The Millenium Seat. Not much of a view, but a welcome rest.

11. Up & around

12. Going North

13. Going up

14. And up

15. Millenium Seat

Yet more steps.

Here the steps get fewer and the going easier.

Here the path cuts through the outer Rampart of the 3000 year old Iron Age Fortification.

A view Southwards along the  Iron Age Ditch that formed the outer defense of the settlement

Imagine what this looked like 3000 years ago. Deeper and steeper, and all dug by hand!

16. More steps

17. Respite

18. Cut through

19. Ditch

20. Imagine

Walk on, and follow around to the right...

Your first view of the summit

Beech copse at the summit

The Mismaze. Late 17th Century. Nine nested squares and 624m long

On the North East edge of the Beech Copse lie buried the remains of a Norman Chapel.

21. Another Path

22. End in sight?

23. The Summit

24. Mismaze

25. Chapel

A fallen tree has been shaped to give a welcome bench seat

Felling selected mature trees allows the growth of saplings to naturally replace the tree canopy.

Stand anywhere on the edge of the tree'd summit and you get a spectacular view.

View South West toward St Cross Mill, now a private residence.

A view across the Itchen Valley toward Bushfield Camp

26. Log seat

27. Management

28. View South

29. St Cross Mill

30. Bushfield

The Hospital of St Cross can be seen center view, with Dongas in the fields between.

The 'Dongas' are a series of ancient parallel trackways formed over centuries by herded animals and carts.

A view of Winchester in the distance, with the Hospital, Prison and Police HQ along the skyline.

The Cathedral

St Giles's Hill in the distance, the site of an internationally important Medieval Fair.

31. St Cross

32. The Dongas

33. Winchester

34. Cathedral

35. St Giles Hill

Another view of the Cathedral.

Parts of Winchester College and the Ridding Meads.

A view across parts of the College, to Highcliffe Estate, with St Giles's Hill in the background.

There are two access routes onto the Hill. Here we retrace our steps across the ditch.

Retracing the path down the hill.

36.Cathedral

37. Ridding Meads

38. Highcliffe

39. Going Home

40. Descent

This is the time to count the steps...

Tall shrubs screen the path.

This distinctive group of trees stands at the edge of the College land.

Back across the old bypass

Through the tunnel, to the car, or walk back along the route that Keates took, into Winchester

41. Steps

42. Shaded

43. Trees

44. By Pass

45. Tunnel

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