The Bounty Bourne End

The Bounty Pub is a unique place right on the river Thames in Bourne End. This pub is all about being outside next the river on a sunny day. It has a large terrace and garden right on the rivers edge. There is also a great enclosed kids play area.
The food is basic pub grub and they do have a children’s menu. You can see more about the pub here http://thebountypub.com/index.html
Getting there
You cannot access the pub directly by car. If driving you would need to park near Bourne End station and walk over the railway bridge, then turn left along the tow path (with the river then on your right) and the pub is about 300m along the path.
The pub is a popular mid walk stop off point, although from Marlow it is quite far on foot/bike. There are a couple of different routes to get there each with their pro’s and con’s depending on how adventurous you feel.
Take the Marlow Donkey (train)
It’s only a short walk from the train station to the pub so it’s a perfect excuse to take a mini train ride from Marlow to Bourne End which young kids always love!
Go by Bike
We are yet to work out what i’d call a perfect bike route, although I’m sure there must be one! This summer we’ll explore some more routes and i’ll post on here if I find one. The routes we have done are…
The Winterhill Bike Route – for confident cyclists
This route takes you from Marlow past Longridge activity centre. Just past Longridge there is the 45 degree right hand bend, hang a left and that is the end of the busy road. I’m not a massive fan of cycling along the road past Londgridge with children, as cars can go quite fast. If you are do this I’d recommend having your child on the pavement and you on the road. In my experience if you are all on the pavement cars think they don’t need to slow down or give you a wide birth which makes it very dangerous. The only positive about this road is that it is straight so cars should be able to see you clearly from a long way off.
Pretty much as soon as you’ve passed Longridge you can take a sigh of relief as that’s the end of needing to worry about cars. There is a bit more road but they are super quiet. Instead you can worry about the up hill section which greets you next 🙂
Follow the map below although it’s pretty much a case of following your nose. There is one gate to negotiate but we’ve found our bikes fit through ok. Immediately after going through the gate stick to the high path, do not fork left down the lower path (as the track is not great and it’s much harder, we have made this mistake!)
I wouldn’t recommend returning on the same route as there is a lot of up hill. We have done this with our 5yr old on his own bike and our 2yr old in the bike seat – it was quite an endurance. Although we did get some lovely picture’s whilst taking a rest.

Marlow to Bourne End along the river path (walk or bike)
If you want to avoid the road then walking or biking along the river path is a good choice BUT there are quite a few gates to negotiate. Not a problem if you are on foot but quite a pain on bikes. The bikes do fit through the gates but it takes a bit of negotiation.
We haven’t walked it before but i’m sure it’s a very doable walk either for older kids or with little ones in a carrier. If the ground is super dry it might be off road buggy friendly but there are no surfaced paths after you leave the Marlow section of the tow path. There is always the option of getting the train home again if you don’t fancy the walk.
