Pete's Walks- Ibstone, Wheeler End and Skirmett (page 2 of 5)
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.
This was the first time I'd walked this path in this direction. It soon left Leygrove's Wood and headed steadily uphill through an arable field. Towards the top of the slope it entered the end of a tree belt, continuing a little distance through the trees (passing through a couple of gates at one point). It then entered a very muddy paddock, where I turned right and followed the edge of the paddock to reach the drive to a farm, where I turned right.
The start of the path going right from Leygrove's Wood
The path from Leygrove's Wood
The same path, entering the tree belt
The very muddy paddock
At the end of the farm drive a lane continued, going left. I followed it for a few yards, then took a path forking slightly right from it. This path ran through a narrow 'Open Access' area next to the lane, with a field on my right. Just after the field ended, I turned right and followed a path through a wooded common. When this came to a path T-junction, I turned left. I then kept more or less straight on through the common, ignoring several side paths, until I reached a minor road (I could have got here by following the lane to its end and then turning right). A public footpath continued down a track on the other side of the road. I ignored a waymarked path going left from the track, but just a few yards further on took an unsigned path going left across a large area of grass. Almost immediately the path forked, and I took the right fork which took me across a grassy common to reach the lane through Wheeler End. Here I turned right, following the lane through the village and back over the M40.
Near the start of the path parallel to the lane
The path after I turned right on the common
The path on the common after I turned left
The path across the 'Green' in Wheeler End
The road through Wheeler End
Straight after crossing the M40 I turned right onto a footpath that went down an embankment and followed the motorway for a quarter of a mile or so. It then turned left, running past some large paddocks on my left and eventually bringing me to the B482 road at Bolter End. Here I went a few yards left, then took a bridleway on the other side (an artist was painting a picture of a cottage here). After a hundred yards or so the bridleway went left, through a gate, and soon passed through two more gates in quick succession as it reached Finings Wood. I soon took a public footpath forking right from the bridleway, which I followed through the wood (going straight on over a crossing track) to leave the wood at a wooden kissing-gate.
The path beside the M40
The path continuing beside a number of paddocks
The start of the bridleway to Fining Wood
The bridleway in Fining Wood, just before I took a path on the right
The path through Fining Wood (heading to the wooden kissing-gate, just visible on the edge of the wood)
The path now went right, following the edge of another wood (Long Copse). When I reached a fence crossing the field on my left, I turned left onto a footpath along the far side of the fence, then turned right onto another path at the next field corner. The fog had lifted a little now, but the views were still a bit restricted. The path dropped steadily downhill - I had to take a slight detour in the field corner where a fallen tree had completed blocked a kissing-gate. The path continued beside a wood on the right - when this turned right, the path went straight on over part of a field to reach a minor road.
The path continuing from Fining Wood
The path after I'd turned left and then right
The same path further on