Bath Skyline Walk

About this place

The best picture of Bath is not taken inside the city but from the hills that ring it to the east. That is where the Bath Skyline runs: a roughly 10 km (6 mile) circular trail looked after by the National Trust that leads you out of the last residential street into open meadows, Bathampton Woods and the plateau of Claverton Down, then swings back to hang you above the city so that the Abbey, the Empire Hotel, the Georgian terraces climbing the far slope and every honey-coloured roof sit in a single frame below. It is free, open at all hours and needs no ticket or booking, which is a small mercy after the price of the Roman Baths. Along the way a short detour of about 200 metres takes you to Sham Castle, which is no castle at all but a turreted stone facade put up in 1762 for Ralph Allen, the quarry owner who supplied Bath with its famous stone, purely to improve the view from his town house. Walk round the back and you find a single wall with nothing behind it; that is the whole joke. The route also crosses Bathampton Down, where the faint bank and ditch of Bathampton Camp, an Iron Age hill fort, still show in the turf, and it skirts Prior Park Landscape Garden with its Palladian bridge, a paid attraction that combines well with the walk if your legs have anything left. Honesty is owed here: the full loop takes three and a half to four hours, with genuine climbs, steps, gates, a stile and stretches that turn to mud in winter, so proper-soled walking shoes are a necessity rather than a luxury. Pushchairs will not manage the whole circuit, but a separate 2-mile (3 km) loop around Claverton Down is surfaced with compacted stone for wheelchairs and buggies and suits families who want the view without the expedition, and there is a woodland play area on that side. In summer there is no crowd to speak of and the long daylight lets you start after four, when the light softens on the stone; in winter shorten the route and set off before noon, because it is dark before five. The usual start is Bathwick Hill at the junction with Cleveland Walk, behind the National Trust-branded bus stop, about a 25-minute uphill walk from Bath Spa station, or take the U1 university bus from the bus station in the centre and get off at Cleveland Walk. There is no dedicated car park; drivers generally fall back on the pay-and-display parking at the University of Bath campus or the side streets near Claverton Down. If you have one day in Bath, spend it on the baths and the Georgian streets. If you have two nights and want to see the city the way its builders saw it, from above, this is the answer.