The Staunton Way is a 8.5 to 20.5 mile long-distance walking route passing through some of the most uninhabited places in Hampshire. It will take you from Queen Elizabeth Country Park, near Petersfield at its northern tip, high onto the South Downs and down to Staunton Country Park on the fringes of Havant.

County: Hampshire, West Sussex
Distance: 20.5 miles
Difficulty of walk: Easy, Leisurely
Estimated time to complete walk:
Terrain details: The Staunton Way has many historically important and interesting buildings and places to visit along the route. The area is rich in Roman remains, with evidence of potteries, cremation sites, settlements and field systems. Contour lynchets– accumulations of soil at the downslope field edge created by prolonged ploughing - are also visible. This area has been greatly valued from as far back as the Stone Age with the Mesolithic sites perhaps as much as 4000 years older than the Roman sites. The path skirts around the edge of Stansted Forest, a mixture of woods and small grassy paddocks still retaining the character of the medieval hunting forest. In 1194, Richard the Lionheart hunted at Stansted while waiting for his ships to load at Portsmouth. Stansted Park is one of the South’s most beautiful stately homes, a real ‘upstairs downstairs’ experience showing the social history of an English country house in its Edwardian heyday. The little church of St Hubert at Idsworth is a curiosity which once belonged to the old manor house. When the London-to-Portsmouth railway line was built in the 19th century, the owner abandoned the site and built a new mansion on higher ground to the west. Part of its former stables is converted into a cottage, and a great double avenue of lime trees climbs the hillside to nowhere.
Type of route: Circular
Starts: Queen Elizabeth Country P(Grid reference: SU718185)
Ends: Staunton Country Park(Grid reference: SU722087)
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