The oTher Goodwood

Think you’ve seen it all at Goodwood? You really haven’t until you’ve tried the off-road experience

So you’ve Seen the hillclimb, the rally stage, the circuit, the airfield. Maybe you’ve cheered on the horses at the racecourse, played a round on one of the two golf courses, had lunch at The Kennels or wandered around the Sculpture Park. But have you really seen Goodwood? All 12,000 acres of it?

It’s easy to forget not only the vastness of the Goodwood Estate, but how varied it is. Until recently much of it was closed to the public, but last year Goodwood added to its driving experiences – track days, skid pan sessions, hot laps of the circuit – with an offroad experience in BMW X5s that covers the farmland, chalk pits and ancient woodland of the Sussex estate.

It’s all satisfyingly gritty and adventurous, but of course there’s also a wonderfully civilised Goodwood twist, which we’ll come to in a moment. And, if you’re feeling flush, the off-road experience can be combined with a helicopter ride over the estate, which will give you a better understanding of where you’ve just been – or where you’re about to venture.

The estate itself owes its existence to the first Duke of Richmond, the son of King Charles II and his French mistress Louise de Kérouaille. The Duke wanted a country retreat away from his London home, Richmond House, to indulge his passion for hunting; in 1697 he bought the Jacobean Goodwood House, built around 1600, in Goodwood Park. This was perfectly placed for the Duke to be able to join the nearby Charlton Hunt, the most fashionable hunt in the country at that time.

This, then, was the origin of the Goodwood Estate as we know it under the charge of the current Earl of March (son of the tenth Duke of Richmond), though it was the third Duke of Richmond who first moved it on. He worked with Gothic architect James Wyatt to extend the house, building an orangery, the grand stable block next to the house, and, half a mile away, the kennels for the hounds.

The Duke was an active politician and cabinet member. He later became the British ambassador in Paris, where he began to collect the tapestries, furniture and porcelain that still grace Goodwood House to this day. It’s often said that he’d planned to extend the house to an octagon shape, but that’s nonsense stemming from 19th century local gossip – and it’s this that the helicopter pilot points out first on our preview flight before we head out in the X5. Sure enough, it’s clear from the air that the house looks like three sides of an octagon but would have been unmanageably large as a full octagon.

We fly north over the Downs, where perched on top of the hills that overlook the house is the imposing racecourse, for horses not cars. Its origins are with the third Duke again, who built a course here in 1802 to race with fellow members of the Sussex Militia. We hover over farm, woodland and quarries, before heading back to the airfield, next to the circuit. It’s fascinating to see the track we know so well from the air like this.

But now the important bit. There are two to each X5, plus an instructor, who explains off-road techniques before setting us off down the side of the circuit and along the quiet local lanes through East Lavant (for once we’re not tempted to stop at The Royal Oak!). We travel north towards the Downs, getting used to the vehicle before heading off-road. Today there are several X5s in convoy, but normally we’d be going it alone.

The lane turns to a slippery wet chalk surface, and not long after we head through a gate into open parkland. Now this is where it gets interesting! Even the most gentle off-roading takes some getting used to, and our instructor teaches us the techniques for dealing with two tonnes of BMW slithering on the muddy tracks. With chunkier tyres than you’d see on a school-run X5, and a wealth of electronics helping out, it’s remarkable how competent the car feels. We’re soon making steady progress up the gentle hills of the Sussex Downs, the first section overlooking the Goodwood Downs golf course, designed in 1914 by five-time Open Champion James Braid, who also designed courses at Gleneagles.

And then these views of civilisation disappear as we head into the trees, part of the ancient woodland that