St Catherine’s Hill Winchester is a great place for families to walk. With parking, steps to climb and trees to explore, it ticks all the boxes! With a lovely view at the top for you to enjoy.
We took a visit to St Catherine’s Hill in Winchester at the weekend, this is only about 20 minutes from us and I have driven past it many times, but never visited.
St Catherine’s Hill is a 58-hectare grassland, and nature reserve, with wildflowers, butterflies and grazing animals. However, being the winter, a few of those things were missing! We had a great couple of hours exploring and taking in the amazing view from the top.
Parking was a bit of an issue for us, there is one car park at the bottom of the hill but was full when we arrived. It was a dry Sunday afternoon, so everyone had the same idea! So we followed the road along a bit further and found some on-the-road parking. You could also park in the St Catherines Hill park and ride and follow the path along to get to the same starting area.
Once you walk through the car park, you have two options. You can take the river path and follow it along, this means you walk up the long set of steps on the other side of the hill.
Or you can take the path through the brick arch, so this is the one we took!
Following the very muddy path, you will need some wellies at this time of the year! We climbed up the hill to the left, following some steps, and then some muddy paths.
But the kids were surprised at how far up they had climbed already, and how much of Winchester you could see!
They had funny trees to find, and more hills to run up and down!
Then we reached the top, and we loved it! Stood there looking at what we could see, and you can even see Winchester Cathedral from up here.
After we had taken in the sights we carried on walking around the top of the hill, there is a little forest at the top of the hill and there were fallen tress to climb, rope swings and little hidden holes to explore.
Up here was quite busy, with lots of people having a lovely walk together, however, I wanted to go and explore this bit down there.
So we headed down the path of steps off the other side of St Catherine’s Hill, and down to the bottom. I am glad we didn’t climb these!!! Off to the right at the bottom of the hill is the river path to follow along back to the car park.
We followed the path along the bottom, only to spot 3 Deer running down the hill and straight across!
We had a lovely walk at St Catherine’s Hill, and we will be back again for sure. I think it will look beautiful in the Summer with the wildflowers and butterflies about. A perfect picnic place!
A new cafe has opened since we visited, The Handlebar Cafe which is near the car park
Pictures Taken 2017
Tips For St Catherines Hill Winchester
- Good for dog walking
- Parking area, but can be busy. Could park in the park and ride St Catherines P&R and follow the path along
- Lots of steps and uneven ground
- Muddy
- Amazing views
- Can extend walk for longer walks all around the area
- No toilets provided
19 Comments
Car parking is a nightmare but the view is totally worth it!! A very special place we loved climbing to the top of 🙂
that is a stunning view. I love a good walk by a river x
What a fantastic place to visit, I think my kids would love it here
This looks like a great place to go exploring with kids!
Shame this is so far from us- looks great!
Did you find the mizmaze? It’s a historic turf maze…mine spent hours following the mini trenches cut into the chalk this time last year. I got a lovely sit down in the sunshine 😉
No we didn’t find this! Where abouts is it?
aarrrggghhhh keep forgetting!! #countrykidsfun 🙂
Ah, we love St Catherine’s Hill and walking by the river – Winchester is such a beautiful place 🙂 Those steps are certainly fun to climb! Lovely photos. #CountryKids
Love the carved post and the deer. Nature sure is beautiful. #countrykids
We were so pleased to see the Deers!
What a beautiful place to explore, it looks like the perfect place to relax whilst the kids burn off all their excess energy. I bet the kids loved exploring St Catherine’s Hill, it looks like the perfect all natural playground with fallen trees to climb and rope swings to jump on. I bet you can’t wait to go exploring again in the summer, I’m sure it will be the perfect spot for a picnic.
Thanks for linking up with me on #CountryKids.
I can’t wait for a picnic there, a lovely big area for the kids to run around in.
It looks a lot of fun 🙂 Great place for the family! x
Perfect place to explore for kids!
Looks like a beautiful place for a family day out. We love going for walks. #CountryKids
Great for the kids to explore places, and get some fresh air.
Looks like a lovely walk! I really must explore more places locally to me! xo
We are making sure we do this year, so much around us that we never knew about.