Walks
On this site we provide several ways to view walks organised and led by the various Oxfordshire Ramblers Groups, together with walks organised by similar organisations. Most Ramblers led walks can be found on the main Rambers Website, here we display only the walks organised by the Oxfordshire groups. The Oxon Weekend Walkers and the Oxon 20s 30s Walkers maintain listings on their own sites.
| This Month | A group of pages showing the walks for the current month |
| Next Month | A group of pages showing the walks for the next month |
| Short Walks | A group of pages showing walks of 5 miles or less for the current month |
| Printable Programmes | A page for each Oxfordshire Group formatted for printing |
| Calendar | a Google format calendar of Oxfordshire-led walks that you can add to your own Google Calendar |
| Regular Local Walks | Several groups, some affilated to the Ramblers, who also run short walks in Oxfordshire, including Health Walks |
| Health Walks | Why Health Walks ? |
| Charity Walks | Charity walks are often advertised to us |
I and R
Oxfordshire Ramblers work with Oxfordshire County Council Countryside Services to monitor and in some cases to improve footpaths.
Walking Issues
- Report an Issue lists some of the ways to report a problem
- Parish Path Wardens assist the Oxfordshire Countyside Services in identifying, clarifying or confirming footpath issues and somer times perform minnor repairs somewhere to meet for a walk
- Most groups support occasional Working Parties to clear overgrown footpaths or repair, sometimes replace, stiles and bridges, normally working with OCS staff.
Walking Resources
- Our walk start places are intended to assist our walk leaders when looking for somewhere to meet for a walk
- Our Useful Links detail web-sites that may help when planning a walk
- Guidance for Walkers is aimed outlines the behaviour expected from anyone attending a Ramblers-led walk
I + R PPW
Latest:
New Parish Path Warden Guidelines have been issued (January 2014). With these come Supplementary Information and a Report Form (word version ).
These replace those issued on 25th September 2013).
Parish Path Wardens needed!
We would like to have volunteers allocated to monitor the footpaths in each parish in the county. Many members have already volunteered for this task. Links to each Group's parishes are given below. Please consider volunteering to be a Path Warden for any of the vacant parishes, and this also applies to the 20s & 30s Group and Weekend Walkers.
Banbury & North Oxfordshire
Bicester & Kidlington
Didcot & Wallingford
Henley & Goring
Oxford
Thame & Wheatley
Vale of White Horse
West Oxfordshire
The Role of the Parish Path Warden
As a parish path warden you would need to walk all the paths in your chosen parish at least once a year. Whilst you are out walking it is suggested that you carry some means of noting the problems you find. We suggest a report form, and there is an example here, and a camera, to take close up shots. If you have a GPS this will immediately give you the grid reference of the position of the problem. It is also helpful to have secateurs to carry out light trimming of any vegetation that is in your way. If the problem is urgent, like a fallen tree, or a dangerous stile, then we advise that to be reported immediately to OCC, otherwise your report form can be completed over the year and then sent to your parish council, OCC, and suitable contacts for your local group. This might be the working party group or the footpath officer.
It is suggested that Path Wardens communicate with the parish council because they can some-times get a problem dealt with quicker than OCC.
There are general guidelines here to help you.
To see the paths in your parish with their official numbers, you need to look at the definitive map on the OCC web site with its accompanying statement. Don’t worry if all this sounds technical as some-one from your group committee can explain it to you. There will be training sessions run by OCC during the year. The dates for these will be announced soon.
If walking the paths in your area appeals to you, and we hope it does, please look at your group’s web page with the vacancies for path wardens and the contact name for your group.
Whatever help you can give will help to keep our paths accessible to walkers.
Thanking you in advance,
‘I like being a path warden because you can choose your days and times, you don’t have to liaise with anyone, you’ve got the specific task of making sure the paths are clear and passable for everyone........what better on a sunny day than to wander down the country paths pruning here and there, and noting deteriorated stiles or fallen trees to report on later......all the while seeing and hearing the peace of the English countryside around you.
You have to be able to follow a map – to know where the rights of way are and which are ‘yours’ -and you have to feed back occasional reports on your ‘patch’ so that this can be collated and sent on to Countryside Services of the County Council who have the statutory responsibility. You might take your responsibilities further and liaise with landowners and councils.............
But most of the time you’re on your own, or in my case, with my dog, going at your own pace and enjoying the beauty of nature while doing something essential for all users of paths.’
John Case, path warden for Nuffield Parish in South Oxfordshire
Please see your group’s page for vacant parishes and whom to contact.