Geocaching with NaviCache - Cache Details: Donnington Castle

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Donnington Castle

by Robin Lovelock (Finds: 12 Score: 34) (Hidden: 47 Score: 136)

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Coordinates (WGS-84 datum)
N 51° 25.206' W 001° 20.412'

Winterbourn, Hampshire
United Kingdom Near By Caches

Hidden On: 20 Oct 2001
Waypoint (Landmark): N000D0
Open Cache:  Personal use only
Cache type:  Unknown
Cache size:   Unknown

Difficulty: (easy)
Terrain: (easy)

Misc:

Comments:

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Donnington Castle stands on a grassy hill, overlooking the market town of Newbury in deepest Berkshire.

The castle dates from 1386 when it was built for Sir Richard Abberbury, but its most eventful days were during the Civil War: it was garrisoned for King Charles I and held out in a 20 month siege from 31st January 1644 until 1st April 1646. This was the time that most of the destruction took place: the gatehouse is the only part now standing, although you can still clearly see the outline of the original flint walls. During the second battle of Newbury, Sir John Boys and his men defended the castle and King Charles was at the nearby Shaw House. The remains of the 17th century star fort, constructed by Col John Boys in 1643-4 is on the slopes below the castle. Shaw House has an upstairs room with a plaque encasing a bullet hole - a shot is said to have been made at the King while he dressed by the window. There is a legend of a secret tunnel between the castle and Shaw House - although it has never been found.

The "Donnington Castle" Geocache is hidden in a stump in woods below and to the west of the castle. You should have no problem finding this largish tupperware box, holding disposable camera for you to take a picture then return to the cache, toys and books for children, cuddly animals, and lots of other low cost "goodies".

You have a choice of two routes to the geocache: if you like to start and end your walk at a pub, then I suggest "The Blackbird" at N 51° 25.248 W 001° 20.960. Take the path alongside the houses, through the golf course, keeping to the tarmac path for pedestrians and golf buggies. Go over the modern footbridge
crossing the A34 dual carriageway, and into the woods, following the footpath to geocache, and beyond that, the castle. Alternatively, start at the Donnington Castle Car Park, which closes at 6.30pm in the evening (another reason to start in the pub :-) - at location N 51° 25.120 W 001° 20.227.

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CACHE LOGS - May contain hints(spoilers)! decode

02 Aug 2003 by paul_blitz (Finds: 0 Score: 0) (Hidden: 0 Score: 0)
Open Log: Personal use only

We visited this cache several months ago, in the winter, in the dark.

Sadly the cache was in a very poor state: the contents were damp / mouldy etc.

Sorry for not reporting our visit before.... we don't normally use this site, so it completely slipped our minds.

Paul

01 Apr 2002 by bobnuts1 (Finds: 1 Score: 3) (Hidden: 0 Score: 0)
Open Log: Personal use only

Found 11:30 am Saturday 30th March 2002 (Easter)
As its close to where we live we chose this as our first Geocache to try and locate.
Lara the Border Collier dog found it after we had located what we thought was the cache but turned out to be a pile of advertising leaflets wedged into the stump of a nearby tree, people hide the strangest things. snapped photo #26. Very much enjoyed the new experience, thanks Robin.

Richard, Sue and Leah.