Blenheim Palace Park. A lovely dog friendly walk in Oxfordshire

We went to Woodstock today for our weekend hike. More specifically, we went to Blenheim Palace park. It was a genuinely great dog friendly walk in Oxfordshire and the first easy hike documented in the blog.

The Blenheim Palace is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. It was built between 1705 and 1722 and was designated UNESCO Word Heritage in 1987.

It is one of the largest houses in England and the only palace not directly associated with the Royal Family and it is the only non-royal building to have the title of palace in the country.

Distance	Total Time	Difficulty
7.92 km	02:22	Easy

Don’t forget to check out the maps, hike details and links to all things mentioned in this post at the bottom of the page.

The Hike

As usual, we started the trail at the car park (Postcode: OX20 1UL). The car park, situated just a short drive from the main entrance, is a vast space but can be full on jam-packed days. There are people helping with the parking and directing traffic which makes parking your car very easy.

Note: Before going to the palace park we checked their website, and saw that parking was free. At the entrance, we were charged £20.50 per person. We didn’t mind, but if you are not driving there, we believe getting into the park is free. Please do some research on that if you intend to visit.

From there, we walked southeast, bordering the limits of the park. That section was an easy walk on a grass path with beautiful big trees along the way.

Note: When we left the car park, we left Gambá off-leash as no one was around, and she loves the grass. An employee shouted from over 150 meters away, saying that dogs must be on a leash. We complied, but later, after we crossed the Blandon Bridge, we saw other off-leash dogs around. Please make your own decision but be aware that they keep an eye out for it.

When we got close to a car exit, we turned towards the Walled Gardens. You can get the paved track from there, but we kept walking on the grass until the river and then towards Blandon Bridge through the river shore.

In this stretch we saw plenty of ducks, so Gambá and Pequi were very interested and pulling a lot, but we quickly made our way to the bridge.

After crossing the bridge, walking through the circular path was easy, although long. The trail is marked with poles showing distance and direction. The only downside here was that you can’t really divert from the path for a couple of kilometres, and the land around it is protected with electric fences. You will see signs saying private property everywhere.

About 1.5/2 kilometres after the bridge, we left the path again and walked through the Great Lake’s shore. This change was welcome, and the girls loved seeing the various birds. We passed Rosamund’s Well and got to the Harry Potter Tree.

The views from that section are pretty and well worth the detour.

We then crossed the Vanbrugh’s Grand Bridge towards the palace and walked back to the car park from there.

It was a pleasant and easy walk on Saturday afternoon, and we could see dogs everywhere, which was great. There are dog waste bins in many places, and although we didn’t use them, there are toilets, cafes, and restaurants around the palace area.

My only issue was with the price we paid for admission to park a car and walk in the park. It is worth mentioning that the ticket price also allowed us to visit the gardens which we didn’t do but that would probably be something to check if you are making your way to the palace park.

Cheers,

Ademar