There isn't a safe crossing for the A419 following this route....

Andrea Sim

The railway bed section from Farfield Lane to South Meadow Lane is NOT a ROW, it is shown on OS map as a Permissive path, but the owner has currently closed that section to extend the length of the railway line....

Brian

It removes the three flights of steps, and tidies up the route near the B n Q warehouse. I'm sure there are nicer routes into Swindon, but it will need a more local walker to compile. Care needs to be taken in crossing the busy A and B roads, and navigating the Magic Roundabout....

Brian

Having followed the Swihig route down B4143 Bridge End Rd, you then encounter a flight of 30 steps down to the railway, and then a bridge over the railway, with its 40 steps up, and 40 steps down....

Brian

The short field section was largely long grass, and finished off with a locked field gate....

Brian

The walk is effectively three sections, Swindon to Mannington Rec Ground, comprising urban lit pavements, Mannington to end of Lydiard Park, tarmac and compacted gravel tracks, and the final section from Hook Road across generally awful fields to RWB....

Brian

Sadly this route is impassable due to overgrown paths, barbed wire, broken styles and planting across the footpath. Although we did get through we wouldn't recommend it for these reasons. We will have to create Royswi Two and come back and test it out....

Slow Ways Darren

While the crops growing of paths can easily be overcome by walking around the edge of the fields, the path has been totally taken over by overgrowth for 200 metres (parallel to Hook Street below Hook Farm)....

danravenellison

The start of the route was easy to find in Cricklade and the first 1.4km were very pleasant along a disused railway. Unfortunately, the second half of this section has been fenced off as new tracks are being laid to extend the Swindon and Cricklade railway (a permissive path alongside is promised). I ended up on a tarmac path for the last bit through the Country Park before we went under the Cricklade and Swindon railway bridge and found ourselves briefly in Swindon suburbia. The route then followed another section of disused railway for quite a long stretch and again was also the 45 National Cycle Route. We emerged to the west of the mainline station at Swindon and headed through the shopping area to find the Library and Information Centre. It may be worth checking if there is a permissive path along the Cricklade and Swindon railway sections that have already been laid....

GiselaB

For me it misses out on 5 stars because of a small 100 metre section of walking alongside the fast A346. It was unpleasant for a couple of minutes, but walking this with Slow Ways Darren was fine....

danravenellison

There are some tricky bits especially around the A346 which involves a barrier that is tricky to negotiate and about 100ms of road walking along this busy road. It's nice to sneak up to cross The Ridgeway for a bit and then Aldbourne itself is a lovely village with all the essential amenities....

Slow Ways Darren

Some busy roads are used at the start of the walk as you leave Swindon town centre and approach the outskirts, after that, quiet suburban roads, lanes and a cycle track are used. On the approach to Chiseldon, the route leaves the obvious cycle track and uses footpaths instead and I think this adds to the interest....

Andy Lloyd

A good Slow Way with an impressive amount of off-road paths considering one end is Swindon (about half off-road paths, about half sidewalks/pavements near Swindon)....

mtormey

A good walk but the section between Ogbourne Maizey and Ogbourne St George leaves the railway path and takes some much less accessible footpaths before rejoining. Its a lovely walk but if you want easier surfaces, stay on the railway path for that section...

davidhughes999

The Lydiard Park (and environs) crossing is lovely, and the rest of the route follows mostly cycle paths in Swindon, it could be improved in a few places (for example it crosses the busy Great Western Way above ground)....

castaway