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I walked this route with a friend last week walking from Byfield to Southam. Due to the rain in the last month the undergrowth and hedges around stiles and bridge crossings have grown significantly but were generally passable

Please read the excellent detailed review by Steve from Lichfield.

The main problems were identified and are:

After crossing the Canal Feeder (walking from Byfield) turn right and walk around 50 yards to find the path on the left through the wood. It is signed but a little difficult to see

The poorly maintained stile when approaching the farm is now broken, please take care

The route when you pass the farm is impassable onto the Fosse, instead go through the gate on the left and follow the Millenium Way to meet the Fosse and turn right to rejoin the route

The path out of Priors Hardwick is difficult to find and I would suggest a short detour into Priors Hardwick by turning right at the church then shortly left to rejoin the route

The rest of the route is well detailed in the previous route review by Steve

Overall this is an excellent walk with fine views of the Warwickshire countryside.

If the walker follows the notes from the two reviews they will be able to navigate it successfully and I would definitely recommend it.

I completed this 10¼ mile walk yesterday travelling northwest from Byfield. A thoroughly enjoyable walk, which in this direction offers more descent (436') than ascent (230'). There were a couple of minor issues with the route being overgrown in a couple of places which meant we diverged from the precise route given here, but we managed to get back on track without too much trouble. Detail given below.

The route takes you out of Byfield quite quickly and before very long you are in the countryside. The little road walking involved doesn't last for long and you are soon rewarded with fine views ahead. After crossing the canal feeder (photo 3), you have to look carefully for the short route through the overgrown copse (photo 4). It is quite overgrown but we found we could get through ok.

On the route towards Priors Hardwick, you approach a farm with a poorly maintained stile (photo 6). The route on the other side of the farm follows a hedge and is supposed to come out onto the Welsh Road. However, the last section next to the Welsh Road was that overgrown (photo 7), we decided to take a small diversion around the field boundary to get to the road. Priors Hardwick is almost the halfway point and the old Butcher's Arms pub is now a Portuguese restaurant if you need to grab some refreshments.

You have to then look carefully for the route out of Priors Hardwick, as when we did the route it wasn't that obvious as it seemed to cut through a back garden. However, the owner of the property was in the garden at the time and pointed us to the route through. We might have taken a different route round if it wasn't for the owner being there, but there is a route through (photo 8).

The route then takes you north, with fantastic views ahead. After walking down the escarpment around an old derelict barn, the route takes you diagonally through a small section of woodland towards Bennet's Barn Farm. We managed to lose the path in this overgrown woodland (photo 10), but it didn't cause too much of an issue as we quickly found the path on the other side.

After passing Marston Doles, the route then follows the Oxford canal all the way to the Folly Inn. The pathway here suffers from erosion in one or two places (photo 11), but it was reasonably safe when we did the route. The Folly Inn (three quarters of the way on this route) is another fantastic place to stop off for refreshments.

The footpath west from the Folly Inn takes you past a model aircraft airfield, so do keep an eye out for low flying objects. You then walk through a lovely plantation woodland before crossing fields to get to Southam. The route across the A423 bypass is through a tunnel (photo 14).

There are several stiles, gates and footbridges to negotiate en route. I almost hesitated to give it five stars due to the overgrown sections, but I don't feel the minor diversions detract too much from the route. Overall a fantastic day's walk which I would definitely recommend.

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