The Welcombe Hills Audio Tour
For those who haven’t seen these it’s well worth a trip up to the hills to check them out. Curiously there doesn’t appear to be any sort of signage at the entrance to the hills via Rowley Fields – if you’re coming by car you can park up at the end of Maidenhead Road free for two hours which is enough time to get round.
The first Audio trail point we came across was this one which is just inside the gate as you enter the lower part of the hills through Rowley Fields. If you’re not familiar with this then go through the first gate on the right at the top of Maidenhead Road. Follow the path until you get to the hedge that separates the second field of Rowley Fields – the path will fork but don’t go up left to the tower instead bear right as if you were going to walk to the Welcombe Hotel. If in doubt there’s usually someone friendly around with a dog who you can ask.
TOP TIPS :
1. Remember your earphones as this is an audio tour and if you want to fully immerse yourself in it then you need to be properly prepared.
2. Load up a QR code reader on your smart phone.
3. If it’s hot remember to bring some water as there aren’t any shops up there!
Here’s a close up of the signage
The QR code is located on a post next to the signs
To give you an idea of what to expect here’s one of the clips you’ll download once your QR reader connects.
http://www.warkswildtrails.org.uk/welcombe-hills-10.html
If you don’t have a QR code reader or you just can’t be fussed with all this technology marlarkey then you actually download the individual sound files (MP3 format) for each section from the website and take them with you – check out the main website here:http://www.warkswildtrails.org.uk/welcombe-hills.html
Altogether a great endeavour from the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. We learned some stuff about the hills we didn’t know and this was a perfect way to spend a bank holiday Monday.
There’s cows in the field but they are friendly. Sometimes they’ll walk towards you but it’s to say hello. Don’t run or panic them and they’ll usually ignore you.