Castle Bottom forms part of Eversley Common and is situated one mile south of Eversley Cross,along the B3016. Limited parking for one or two vehicles is available at N 51° 19.887 W 000° 52.054 (opposite Hill House) but please do not block any gateways.
If you park here, you will have a nice walk of about a mile to the cache site passing through Castle Bottom.
There is little archaeological information available for the site, but the site does contain what is thought to be a burial mound of probable Bronze Age origin. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of a castle on or near Castle Bottom!
The site is an important ground-nesting site and has strong populations of woodlark and nightjar. Winter birds visiting the reserve include the Redwing, Redpoll and Sisken. Rare breed cattle sometimes graze on the site during the summer months and these are almost worth visiting the site for in their own right although they keep themselves well hidden at times! Gorse is flowering at the moment but during the late summer months, the heather is in full bloom so the reserve is often ablaze with colour
There are a number of paths and tracks crisscrossing the reserve - please do not venture from these as the area is boogy and you must keep dogs on a short lead whilst within the reserve. Waterproof footwear is recommended as the paths can be wet and muddy particularly after heavy rain.
You will need to leave the reserve to find the cache which is a black cylindrical container with an assortment of goodies.
If you really want a 'cache and dash', then apparently you can park within 200 metres of the cash (we don't recommend this and don't even use this for maintenance visits). If you opt for this, then you get to see a flytip rather than a lovely nature reserve!
Update 24/07/2016 - a barbed wire fence has been erected at the base of bank (field side) but the cache can be retrieved safely if GZ is approached from the woods.