Pete's Walks- Coombe Hill and Kingsash (page 1 of 4)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
I did this roughly 11.2 mile circular walk on Saturday, 27th September 2014. Despite the different title, this was basically the Cobblershill and Wendover Woods walk that I did last November, but in the opposite direction (anti-clockwise) and starting from Coombe Hill - I'd intended to start at Cobblershill, but when I got to the car park I found it had been closed (there was space for one vehicle, or possibly two small vehicles, by the entrance, but there was already a large mini-bus parked there).
I really enjoyed this walk when I did it last November, but I suspected it would be better in that clockwise direction because that way round you get the best of the views. Doing it anti-clockwise was still a good walk, but I'd definitely recommend doing it clockwise.
I started walking about 11am, going through the gate by the car park entrance and taking the leftmost path, beside bushes and a fence. After a few hundred yards I reached a metal kissing-gate where I turned left, joining both the Ridgeway National Trail and the route I did last November. The path led through a beech wood to a road (the one to the car park) where I turned right. After a hundred yards or so, the Ridgeway continued across the road, again running through a beech wood. After about a quarter of a mile I came to a path crossroads with a wooden signpost, where I turned left to head through Linton's Wood.
The leftmost path from the car park at Coombe Hill
The Ridgeway, just after I joined it by turning left through a metal kissing-gate
The Ridgeway continuing on the other side of the road to the Coombe Hill car park
The start of the path from the Ridgeway to Fugsdon Wood, through Linton's Wood
I then had a slight navigational mishap. After about a third of a mile through the wood, I became concerned that I was too close to some fields over to my left. I noticed a parallel path a few yards to my right, and made my way over to it. I turned right and followed it for a hundred yards or so and came to the path crossroads I'd expected to reach. I now had to turn left, whereas I should have come along the path from the right and gone straight on. Before turning left, I went right for a hundred yards or so to see how I'd gone wrong. When I reached the path I'd been on earlier, there was no apparent sign that you needed to turn right on a very faint path rather than continue on the clear path ahead, so it was not surprising I'd gone wrong.
I retraced my steps and went straight on at the crossroads, now heading through Fugsdon Wood. At the next path junction, marked by a waymark post, I turned right and followed a path (indistinct at first) that soon dropped through the trees to reach the edge of the wood where a surfaced drive lead left to Old Dunsmore Farm. There I turned right, following a bridleway along a valley bottom with the farm grounds to my right.
The path going through Linton's Wood
The path going through Linton's Wood
The path going east through Fugsdon Wood
The start of the path going south through Fugsdon Wood
Looking out towards Dunsmore Old Farm from Fugsdon Wood
The start of the short drive between Fugsdon Wood and Dunsmore Old Farm
The bridleway going south from Dunsmore Old Farm
At the next junction I turned left on a bridleway climbing uphill through Scrub Wood. Towards the top of the slope I took a short path going left, which took me to another bridleway on a surfaced track south of Dunsmore. I went a few yards left, and took a path on the other side, which ran between fences to reach Sermon's Wood (not named on the OS map, but so named on the Google map). The path continued downhill through the wood for some distance.
The bridleway climbing through Scrub Wood
The bridleway climbing through Scrub Wood
The start of the path to Sermon's Wood (Boddington Hill and Wendover Woods in distance)
The path through Sermon's Wood
The path through Sermon's Wood