Royate Hill — Attraction in Bristol

This is a 100-yard (or so) stretch of a disused railway, left isolated at both ends due to road bridges having been demolished. It is high up on an embankment and includes the one bridge that has been left alone, spanning Royate Hill. The footpath is mainly of small stones and there are steps up to it.

25 years ago the location was in the local news when developers tried to fell trees and remove shrubbery to build houses, despite not having planning permission, and were stopped by angry locals. It was then looked after by the Avon Wildlife Trust as a nature reserve, and was well worth visiting.

Today (July 2017) it is in a sad state indeed. The few signs are almost totally overgrown, the entrances are extremely hard to find (one is actually from Greenbank View and the other between Wainbrook Drive and Crabtree Walk), and there is a general air of neglect. The Greenbank View entrance has become filthy. Brambles and weeds are starting to grow over the path, and the latest notices on the tatty notice boards are from 2006.

It transpires that the Wildlife Trust has recently handed the site over to Bristol City Council, having presumably done virtually nothing with it for years, and I am afraid I have grave doubts that its fortunes will revive under the...

The area is steeped in history, notably the Royate Hill Viaduct, an impressive brick structure that once carried the Clifton Extension Railway in the 1870s. This viaduct now forms an integral part of the nature reserve, offering elevated views over Greenbank Cemetery and the surrounding valley.

​The transformation of this former railway embankment into a nature reserve was the result of a concerted five-year campaign by the Avon Wildlife Trust and local residents, culminating in its designation as a Local Nature...

Great part of Bristol - used by all in the community; cyclists, walkers and the occasional police...