17/10/2023
Caxton circular
7.9km - 4.9 miles
Park at Caxton Village Hall, Caxton, Cambridge CB23 3PL
Coming out of the village hall car park, turn right and head for St Andrews Church, crossing St Peter's Street. Go through the gated entrance for the church and walk around it, where you'll see a public footpath leading out of the churchyard. Walk across a small piece of land towards the road, and after a few yards, take the footpath on the right that goes by the side of a business unit and follow straight down, where you will take a left followed by a short right. Walk past the intensive farm units and take the footpath to your right.
Walk the field perimeter to the bottom, turn right, then turn left after 50 metres. Again, walk the perimeter of that field to the top and take a slight right followed by a left, and on your right, you will spot what's left of the medieval fish ponds, named The Moat. After the ponds bear right, and after 100 metres, take the footpath to the right and up the slight incline where you turn right, which brings you back onto the old Roman road named Ermine Street. Turn right onto Ermine Street and follow for 600 metres until you cross a very small bright with a footpath on your left.
Follow this footpath up to Cambourne Nature Reserve, which you turn right into and follow the path by the side for another 500 metres or so and look for the metal gate that is the public footpath that leads down to Bourne Mill. Some of my photos are from 2018, when the mill was open to the public. It is now closed for repairs; you can only walk past it and not enter the site.
Follow the public footpath to cross Caxton Road and onto the farmland with a stream at the bottom, which you cross and head for the patch of woodland on the brow of the hill, where you turn right, following the path across the A1198 and Royston Road and which eventually brings you back at Gransden Road, where you turn left back to the village hall.
The walk is approx three hours or so. Here, Bo, Frosty, Luna, Ozzy, Pippa and Bailey show the way…
Google map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vnXmSyJo2WtbiipE9