Pete's Walks - Kensworth and everywhere (page 3 of 3)
Beyond Beechwood Home Farm, I turned left at a track crossroads, and followed the gravelly farm drive up and down a small valley to reach Roe End, at the point where Roe End Lane becomes a public bridleway. I turned right for a short way along the lane, then took a footpath on the left. This eventually went through a gap in a field corner, where the path split in two. I went half-right along a headland with an initially intermittent hedge, beside a field of yellow oil-seed rape. The path descended gradually to reach the edge of Markyate.
The farm drive from Beechwood Home Farm to Roe End
Roe End Lane
The start of the path from roe End Lane to Markyate
Approaching Markyate
I turned right along Buckwood Road, almost immediately leaving the village, and soon took a path on the left. This followed the edge of more fields of rape or young green corn for some distance, eventually reaching the farm buildings at Buckwood Stubbs and then the adjoining Fareless and Dedmansey Woods. The path then continued a long way along the edge of these and Byslip Wood.
Near the start of the path from Buckwood Road, Markyate, to Dedmansey Wood
The path to Dedmansey Wood
Approaching the farm buildings at Buckwood Stubbs and Fareless Wood
The path beside Fareless Wood
The path continuing between Dedmansey Wood and Byslip Wood
My route then took me left along the southern edge of Byslip Wood to reach Byslips Road (the map shows the road and hamlet here as Byslips, but the wood is named Byslip). A few yards left along the road, a footpath continued across a huge field of young corn (first passing a solitary tree and then a wood) to reach a small wood on the edge of Holywell. I spotted my first Cuckoo-flower of the year here (so called as it flowers at the same time that Cuckoos are heard, so it was appropriate that I'd heard my first Cuckoo today as well). Beyond the wood I turned right, following a path behind some gardens at Holywell to reach Buckwood Lane. I crossed over and followed Dovehouse Lane up hill, before taking a path on the left that took me to the Whipsnade Road, from where it was just a quarter of a mile back to my home in Kensworth.
The path through Byslip Wood
Near the start of the path from Byslips road to Holywell
The wood on the edge of Holywel
Dovehouse Lane
Approaching the Whipsnade Road - it was now about 3pm, so the traffic jam had cleared
This was a great walk, but then any route would be at its best on such a glorious Spring day. It really brought home to me once more just how nice the countryside is right here on my doorstep. Apart from the almost perfect weather, almost everywhere there was the added colour of the butterflies and the beautiful wildflowers. Bluebells and Greater Stitchwort added splashes of blue and white along almost every path, and in two or three places I spotted the pink Herb Robert. But I will always reember this walk as the day I spotted my first duke of Burgundy butterfly.