This walk of 11 miles leads to two National Trust properties, Coughton Court and The Kinwarton Dovecote, and follows the lovely River Arrow for some of its length.
The walk starts at The Throckmorton Arms (Coughton Hill, A435, Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5HX) and passes along the frontage of Coughton Court which is an imposing Tudor house set in beautiful gardens. Coughton Court is the home of the Throckmorton family who have lived at Coughton since 1409. John de Throckmorton, Under Treasurer of England to Henry VI, acquired Coughton in the early 15th Century through his marriage to Eleanor de Spiney. Their descendants have held it for 600 years and, although the National Trust has owned the house since 1946, the family still live here. The origins of Coughton Court lie in pre-conquest times: the present building was begun in the 15th Century. The walk also passes two beautiful churches in the grounds.
After several miles the walk passes a lovely little church at Kinwarton before arriving at the Kinwarton Dovecote which stands majestically in the middle of a field. This lovely and rare 14th-century circular dovecote has metre-thick walls, over 580 nesting holes and original rotating ladder; it is the only remaining relic of a moated grange belonging to the Abbey of Evesham, which was situated to the north-west of the Dovecote. The squabs, or young pigeons, would have made good eating at a time of the year when fresh meat was scarce. Only the Lord of the Manor was allowed to build or own a Dovecote. The pigeons fed off the crops of the Lord and tenants alike which caused much resentment leading to court cases in this country and to revolution in France. The walk continues through unspoilt undulating Warwickshire countryside picking up parts of both the Heart of England and Monarchs Way and passes through Spernall before picking up the River Arrow again to return to Coughton.
See below for photos from the walk, and a map of the route.
Click the Learn more button above to open the map in Outdooractive from where you can download the route to the free Outdooractive app for Android or iOS, or export the route to a GPX file for use in other apps. A GPX file for this route can also be downloaded from here. For more about using Outdooractive, and a list of all our routes with GPS files, see: GPS Routes
