Winchfield to Fleet
2025-08-02
Total Distance: 17km
Difficulty: Medium distance, Easy walk
Getting There: Train to Winchfield from Waterloo
This was a lovely walk mostly down the Basingstoke canal. You walk down right on the towpath so you are basically right on the water the whole way. The start is about 1km of road walking (with no footpath) which does suck, but at least it's a very popular road.
On the walk we stopped in at 2 pubs: The Barley Mow Winchfield, and The Fox and Hounds. Honestly you could skip both. Neither were much to write home about (hence no reviews).
Some really interesting anti-tank stuff on the walk from the Second World War.
Excellent bird life as well. We saw a Kingfisher, a few Red Kites, and an in-ordinate amount of tits and other tiny birds (we couldn't always tell).
The end of the walk around Fleet Pond was great as well. Good bird life, interesting landscape (can't think of the right word... but it felt like a very different place from where we actually were).
The walk can finish up at the Fleet train station as it's right next to Fleet Pond. This gives for easy return to London. We went to a beer festival in Fleet (hence the walk into the town center at the end).
I found this walk from the fantastic Zoe Tehrani. She posts really excellent walks that are sub 1 hour from London. We've done a few that she's suggested already.
Overall Comments
Really good walk and would do again probably. We do love seeing birds, so that was a big plus.