Pete's Walks- Wigginton and Barn Wood (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.
It was still foggy as I followed this path up Aston Hill, initially just inside a wood with pastures just to my right. The gloom was brightened for me when I spotted a fresh and fairly colourful fungus, which I later identified as a Magpie Inkcap. Further up the hill the pastures ended, and I now had another wood, Astonhill Coppice, on my right - there was a mountain bike centre here, with marked trails and other features. The footpath finally reached the drive from Aston Hill Farm, which I followed to reach the minor road that climbs Aston Hill.
The path up Aston Hill
The path up Aston Hill
Foggy view from the path up Aston Hill
Magpie Inkcap
The path up Aston Hill, now beside the mountain biking centre
The drive from Aston Hill Farm
Across the road, a footpath has been diverted in recent years a few yards to the left, along a gravel drive (it used to go straight through a garden). But immediately I started down down the drive I took another path forking half-left over a stile. The pasture here was in thick fog, and there was obviously some event taking place as there were a large number of parked cars and a red and white tape stretched along just to the left of the footpath. As I followed the path, a few people and a few tents started to appear out of the fog - this was obviously the finishing point of some sort of a race. As I passed by I got several joking cheers and congratulations as people said I was the first to finish, although someone pointed out I'd got another four laps to go (I would keep joining and leaving the route of this route over the next couple of miles or so, and one of the competitors told me it was 5 laps of a 10-mile course!).
On the far side of the pasture, the path entered part of Wendover Woods and I turned left. After a little while the path joined the surfaced drive to the visitor centre, where I continued straight on. I followed the drive for almost half a mile, staying on it as it curved left as it passed the car park on my right with the visitor centre on my left. When I reached a car park for the disabled on the left, I took a broad path on the right.
The path across the pasture on top of Aston Hill - the cars belong to the entrants in the Centurion race, the finish of which is hidden n the fog
The path heading to the drive to the Wendover Woods visitor centre
The drive to the Wendover Woods visitor centre
A short way down this path there was a grass area on the right with a view over a valley called The Hale (I only got a poor photo, looking into the sun). Several runners came past me along here, but after a few hundred yards their course went steeply up a path on the left. I stayed on the broad track that was descending very gently through the woods, with a steep slope down through the trees on my right. Further on the runners crossed my path, only to rejoin it further on. I was looking for a footpath on the left - I remembered that last time I came this way the path junction seemed to be further along here than I expected, but even so I was getting worried that I'd missed it when I eventually reached it after a mile or so (it is just after the path eventually starts to curve left).
Near the start of the footpath from the Wendover Woods visitor centre
View from a little further along the same path - there is a statue of the Gruffalo here.
The footpath from the Wendover Woods visitor centre
The footpath from the Wendover Woods visitor centre
The footpath from the Wendover Woods visitor centre
Looking right from the footpath from the Wendover Woods visitor centre
The footpath from the Wendover Woods visitor centre