Distance: 6 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Circular walk in the southwestern most corner of Northamptonshire to the Iron Age hillfort Rainsborough Camp starting and finishing at Kings Sutton Railway Station.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
The View From the Southern Most Tip of the East Midlands
Rainsborough Camp stands in hilly country nearly 150 metres above sea level in the far south west of Northamptonshire. Almost as far south as you can get while still being indisputably in the Midlands region.
Like so many prehistoric hill forts the structure was built up and altered over the course of hundreds of years by dozens of generations of people who worked on the structure. Today the site consists of an enclosed area of about 2.6 hectares surrounded by a rampart of up to 4 metres in height with a ditch running around the bottom of the rampart.
Rainsborough Camp apparently began in the 6th or 5th Centuries BCE with the development of an unfortified settlement. The large circular fort structure that is visible to this day dates back at least 2,500 years having been started in the 5th Century.
The fort appears to have been occupied until late in the 4th Century BCE when it seems to have been destroyed by fire. Potentially evidence that it was attacked, captured and burnt.
Later in the 2nd Century BCE it appears that a new group re-occupied the fort, repaired it and began using the site for defensive purposes once more.
Occupation of the site continued at times after the Roman Occupation of Britain. Archeologists have found evidence that the site was occupied in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE towards the end of the Roman period in the British Isles and well over 1,000 years after the fort was first constructed.
In the 18th Century the site was revisited, strengthened in places with bits of the bank built up higher and stone edging placed around the bottom of the rampart. Testimony to Rainsborough Camp’s importance as a local landmark in southwestern most Northamptonshire.
The area’s status as border country – possibly the reason why the hill was chosen first for a settlement and then a fortification more than 2,500 years ago – is apparent. The area is part of the catchment area for the nearby River Cherwell which flows south through Oxfordshire to the River Thames, rather than north or west to the River Trent or the Severn which drains most of the Midlands region. The highly cultivated hilly landscape punctured by patches of woodland and yellowstone villages also has a southern, Cotswold flavour to it.
Kings Sutton, a large village located hundreds of metres from the boundary with Oxfordshire, is the nearest settlement of any significant size near Rainsborough Camp. The village as an Oxford postcode – despite being in Northamptonshire – and is closely tied into south eastern England, as well as the West Midlands, via the Chiltern Main Line and trains to Oxford and London Marylebone as well as up to Leamington-Spa, Birmingham and the Black Country. A map illustrating south eastern England’s railway network is prominently displayed at the entrance to Kings Sutton Station.
The Walk
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.
This circular walk in south western Northamptonshire to Rainsborough Camp starts and finishes from Kings Sutton Railway Station.
Exit Kings Sutton Railway Station and follow the road running into the village.
After some distance you reach a village green with a post office off to the left.
At the village green take a road heading off to the left.
Keep on walking uphill, along this road to the right as it runs through the houses around the centre of Kings Sutton.
Presently off to the right there is a footpath running behind the backs of houses. Turn right and follow this path.
Soon it comes out beside a village green. Keep walking down the road beside the village green.
At the bottom of the road next to the village hall you come to a main road running along the base of the village green.
Here turn left and follow this road along the bottom of the green.
Keep on walking after you reach the bottom of the green carrying on down the road.
After some distance there is a driveway off to the right just after a copse of fir trees running towards some former farm buildings. Turn down this track.
At the bottom of this driveway just after a large modern house shaped like a traditional farm there is a path running off to the right behind it.
Turn down this path and then almost immediately turn left following a wide track downhill towards a patch of woodland.
Walk through this woodland and straight out onto a field.
Cross this field walking straight ahead along a path hugging close to the hedgerow on the left.
Near the top of the field there is a gap in the hedgerow to the left with a well worn path running across the field.
Turn right once through the hedge and follow this path uphill.
It is worth looking back near the top of the hill for the view back towards Kings Sutton and across the Cherwell Valley.
At the top of the hill there is a line of trees forming a field boundary. Turn right and cross this line into the field beyond.
Keep walking downhill.
Presently the path runs off to the left.
Upon reaching a hedgerow turn left again. Keep on following the path, as it runs along the top of a wold type valley, then straight across fields.
Presently at a small thicket the path heads off to the right.
Continue walking straight ahead for quite some distance.
Soon the top of the village of Charlton nestled amongst trees comes into view.
Follow the path downhill towards, and through, a thicket.
On the far side of the thicket there is a footbridge over a stream which you cross.
On the far side of the bridge start walking uphill heading to the left.
At the top of the hill head through a gap between two houses heading towards a stile next to the Rose and Crown pub.
Cross over the stile and head onto the main road through Charlton. Once on the road turn right and begin walking downhill.
Approaching the bottom of the valley there is a bridge. On the other side look out for a gate off on the right.
Head through this gate and begin walking uphill along a bridleway off to the left.
Having crossed a fence line you head to the left across a field. Upon coming to a gate you walk through it and then cross the field beyond.
On the far side of the field you pass through a gate way into the field where the modest in height, but impressive in terms of the sheer amount of ground it encloses, remains of Rainsborough Camp.
The prehistoric fort lies off to the left and it is easy to wander uphill and have a look at the rampart and enclosure.
After viewing the remains follow the path to the right heading for a gate to continue the walk and return to Kings Sutton.
Having passed through the gate on the left hand side, keep walking up the hill.
At the top of the hill keep walking straight ahead following the line a hedge around the edge of the field.
On the far side having walked through a gateway turn to the left and keep following the line of the hedgerow towards the far side of the field, walking near the crest of a tall ridge.
On the far side of the field there is a bridleway sign pointing straight across a field leading steeply downwards towards a large farm at the bottom of the valley.
Walk straight across the field.
On the far side take a slight left and keep walking straight along a very rough track now on flat ground.
This leads out next to a paved track running into the farmyard. Turn right and follow this track, it leads along the side of the farmyard.
On the far side follow the track down into a dip and then across a wooden footbridge by a ford across a stream, then up the bank beyond.
Having crossed the stream, follow the track as it runs to the left towards a stand of two sets of semi-detached early 20th Century cottages.
Upon reaching the cottages pass a metal gate and walk onto a country lane. Follow the lane around to the right.
Immediately after passing the last of the cottages there is a footpath running off to the right.
Turn right down this footpath and soon you enter a series of fields which you walk straight across.
After walking for some distance the edge of Kings Sutton and its tall church tower come into view immediately ahead of you.
Having crossed a footbridge, follow the path along a line of trees at the side of a field heading towards a copse just in front of the village.
Follow the path to the left then head along a path to the right across a footbridge into the copse.
On the far side of the footbridge follow the path to the left past a sewage treatment works and out across a field right on the edge of Kings Sutton.
Upon exiting the field at the opposite corner and reaching the side of a road turn left and walk along the tarmac a short distance.
A little way down the road turn right along a driveway passing some farm buildings and a couple of houses.
After some distance, just past the houses, look out for a gate on the right which you head through onto a meadow.
Once in the meadow walk up a path a short distance and then head left across the meadow towards a thick stand of trees on the far side.
On reaching the far side of the meadow there is a footpath which you follow to the right.
Upon reaching a gate head through it and down a path towards some modern yellow brick houses on the edge of Kings Sutton.
After reaching the road through another gate, turn left. Here you are back at Kings Sutton Railway Station.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
Kings Sutton Station has fairly frequent, albeit slightly random services, throughout the day. There is a regular shuttle service run by GWR (as of early December 2022) which trundles between Banbury and Didcot Parkway via Bicester and Oxford then back again. Chiltern Railways also stop at Kings Sutton, with several services each day running up to the West Midlands and down to London, as well as stations in between. Kings Sutton is not served by any buses at present.