Distance: 3.3 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Short walk, partially along canal towpaths, in the suburbs of Leamington Spa and Warwick, to the atmospheric and deeply historic ruins of Guy’s Cliffe House.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Warwick’s Weighted Gothic Mansion

Here in the Midlands we are not short of locations which could be out of a fairytale whether light or dark. From the Peak District crags and dales which featured in Rob Reiner’s mid-80s indie hit The Princess Bride. To the remnants of Sherwood Forest inextricably lined with Robin Hood, and the Pennine outcrops of north Staffordshire which inspired Alan Garner. Through the area around Bardon Hill in north western Leicestershire which inspired Ivanhoe, the dells and mysterious outcrops of Shropshire, south Staffordshire and northern Worcestershire, which undoubtedly inspired J.R.R. Tolkein. All the way to the far south of the region, the Wye Valley, Malvern Hills and Cotswolds, and all the magical, mythical associations they possess. Qualities of the southern Midlands perhaps most famously reflected in Shakespeare’s works like Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Perhaps one of the most impressive locations in this category is Guy’s Cliffe House, situated in the little patch of countryside between Warwick, Leamington Spa and Kenilworth. A country estate with a thick, rich and often bleakley unpleasant history. Guy’s Cliffe features a ruined riverside gothic mansion, a church with masonic connections and a watermill sat amidst thick woodland. What more could you want for a fairytale or fantastical location?

Guy’s Cliffe House today is largely ruinous, and is in private hands, so public access is most of the site is infrequently available. This said an excellent view of the once great mansion’s ruined exterior, and the parts of the property which are still maintained, can be gained from the public footpath’s immediate opposite where it backs onto a bend in the River Avon. The sandstone river cliff upon which the house sits is a site of special scientific interest, being both unusual in Warwickshire, and a noted location for the discovery of Mastodonsaurus fossils from over 230 million years ago.

The Guy’s Cliffe House site is believed to have been inhabited since the 5th Century. It is steeped in mythology, some of it pertaining to the legendary Guy of Warwick, to whom the site’s name gestures. Purportedly as an old man Guy of Warwick lived at the location in a hermitage.

Guy or no Guy the Guy’s Cliffe House site was home to a chantry during the middle ages devoted to St. Mary Magdalene. This foundation’s stone cut stables and storehouses can still be seen today in the Guy’s Cliffe grounds.

The site gained further significance and notoriety later in the middle ages due to its proximity to Blacklow Hill the place where Piers Gaveston the close confidante (and possible lover) of Edward II was apprehended by his political rivals in 1312 and murdered. A member of the Greathead family who owned Guy’s Cliffe between the mid-18th and mid-20th Centuries had a memorial to Piers Gaveston built in the early 1820s.    

However, it is the spectacular largely ruined mansion, clearly visible from the far bank of the Avon, which draws most pilgrims to the site these days. It must be recognised that like many a country mansion in the UK Guy’s Cliffe House is intrinsically bound up with the shear misery and exploitation of the slave trade, upon whose profits its was partially erected. Today’s ruin was constructed upon the orders of Samuel Greathead, a merchant, enslaver and MP for Coventry from 1747 to 1761. To facilitate the construction of the house and the surrounding estate gardens the village of Guy’s Cliffe was obliterated and its inhabitants scattered. Until 1986 when it was amalgamated with the adjacent parish of Leek Wooton, Guy’s Cliffe remained in spectral form as the least populous civil parish in England, with a population of just four upon amalgamation. As ever with country piles Guy’s Cliffe House was remodelled by later family members, who extended and tweaked it according to the fashions of their day, as money their own or a banker’s, allowed.

In common with many other great houses Guy’s Cliffe had fallen into decrepitude by the middle of the 20th Century at which point parts of the estate began to be sold off with the first disposals taking place in 1947. Saxon Mill, the old watermill which worked grinding corn until 1938 just north of the main house was sold to a brewery. They converted it into a bar and restaurant which remains a popular river side place to eat and drink to this day. At the same time the stables were sold off to become a riding school and the kitchen gardens to be a plant nursery, both of which, like the Saxon Mill pub operate until this day.

Perhaps most famously the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene – ecclesiastical descendant of the medieval chantry that one stood on the site – was leased to the Freemasons in 1955. To this day they remain the custodians and users of the property, holding ceremonies and other events in the church and on the site.

Despite being sold in the 1950s and becoming a listed building in time, Guy’s Cliffe House itself, remained decaying throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. By the 1970s much of the roof had fallen in, with the house’s condition becoming even worse in 1992 when an accident during the filming of the ITV programme Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyr caused widespread fire damage. Footage of the burning, which was pretty spectacular, was used in the broadcast.

These days the gothic manor is in an advanced state of decay with trees and other shrubbery growing all over it. It looks bleak, fantastical and imposing when viewed from the other side of the Avon. And up close when access to this intriguing, storied, and frequently rather bleak site is occasionally granted.

The Walk

Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

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This walk to Guy’s Cliffe House begins from Leamington Spa Railway Station.

At the station leave via the main exit onto the car park and forecourt to the side.

Here cross the car park making for a disabled access ramp. Climb up the access ramp onto the Old Warwick Road.

Upon reaching the road turn right and walk towards some traffic lights where you cross.

On the far side of the road turn right again, looking out on your left from some steps down to the Grand Union Canal.

Upon reaching the steps turn left and walk down them to the canal side.

Once on the towpath turn right and begin following it in the direction of Warwick.

You pass underneath a series of sturdy modern, a slightly older, road bridges, before crossing the Chiltern Main Line and an aqueduct over the River Avon.

Shortly after crossing the River Avon now just north of Warwick town centre, you come to a bridge with a ramp running off the canal to the right. Turn right and walk up this ramp.

At the top of the ramp you are out on the pavement of Rugby Road. Here, turn right and follow the road for some distance.

Presently you cross the River Avon once more. On the far side of the Avon keep walking a little further to a place where the road forks.

Here turn left crossing the road, then turn left again walking down a narrow side road running parallel with the Avon and it flood meadows.

Having walked along the lane a short way you approach an old red brick early 20th Century house behind a black gate. Here off to the right there is a waymarked footpath. Turn right and follow it uphill, heading straight uphill passing a flight of steps on your right.

Continue along this footpath for some distance.

After a while you follow the path across a scrap of grass on the edge of a modern housing estate which features a children’s play area.

On the far side of the play area the path forks. Here take the left hand fork walking across grass towards a gap the path passes through beside a metal fence.

Through the gap keep following the path to the left.

Keep following the path as it runs along a metal fence.

Presently you reach a short flight of worn steps cut into a bank which you climb.

At the top of the steps you are on the edge of an enormous field. Follow the well worn path straight ahead and to the left around the edge of the field.

Soon you come to a place where the path forks. On the left it drops down sharply towards the River Avon where it runs close to the edge of the bank in the direction of the ruins of Guy’s Cliffe House. Due to the steep drop and the muddiness of the bank I opted to head right instead across the field.

Turning right follow the well worn path across the field in the direction of some farm buildings.

Just before you reach the farm buildings turn left following a wider, well worn track. From here to your left at the bottom of the hill on the other side of the hill you can see Guy’s Cliffe House.

Keep on following the path crossing a field boundary marked by a fence line and a footpath waymark. 

On the other side keep walking until you reach a junction where the path you have been following joins another.

Here turn left, walking towards the River Avon.

Upon reaching the Avon straight ahead of you there is a gate leading to a footbridge across the river. 

To get a better view of Guy’s Cliffe House turn left here and walk a short distance along the bank until you are opposite the remains of the great house.

Having seen the remains of Guy’s Cliffe head back to the gate leading to the bridge and walk through it.

On the far side walk across the bridge over the Avon. This leads onto a long peninsular-like landspit, sticking far out into the river with an old stone paved track running across it. 

Walk along this pavement approaching Saxon Mill, historically part of the Guy’s Cliffe estate and a working water mill until 1938. It has been a popular pub since 1952.

Climb a short flight of steps and approach Saxon Mill over a bridge across the millrace.

Once on the other side turn left and walk around the pub’s decking approaching the car park.

Once in the car park walk straight across it approaching the old road from Warwick to Kenilworth via Leek Wooton.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

There is a bus stop opposite the entrance to Saxon Mill, however, frustratingly at the time of writing in December 2023 the stop was only served by a schools service in term time. For this reason the best way of getting back is to turn left upon reaching the main road and walk straight ahead for around fifteen or twenty minutes until you reach Warwick Railway Station. This has services south towards Leamington Spa (which has services to Coventry and the south coast), Banbury, and London. As well as north towards Solihull and Birmingham, as well as south west to Stratford-upon-Avon. Near the station are stops for the X17 bus which at the time of writing in December 2023 was half hourly for most of the day on a circuit taking in Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth and Coventry.