Pete's Walks- Maidensgrove Common and Moor Common (page 2 of 6)
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 continued straight on along the bridleway through Kimble Wood. The bridleway descended almost imperceptibly, following a valley bottom that gradually curved left and then right. Part of the wood had been felled, leaving a more open area. At some point the wood became Great Wood and then further on Poynatts Wood. Eventually, after about a mile and a quarter, I reached Dolesden Lane, where I turned right.
The bridleway continuing through Kimble Wood
Kimble Wood
Kimble Wood
This is probably now Poynatts Wood
Dolesden Lane
After one or two hundred yards I turned right onto a footpath that ran through another part of Poynatts Wood. It soon entered a large meadow where I went straight on at a path junction (I've previously always gone half-right here, so I was now again on a path that was new to me). The path rose steadily uphill through the long grass of the meadow, where I was pleasantly surprised to see many Pyramidal Orchids. It then continued uphill through another part of Poynatts Wood, but soon reached a junction where it turned left (a sign indicated that the track I joined here was a bridleway, but that is not shown on the OS map, only the path I was following that turns left here). The path then ran fairly level through the wood for a few hundred yards, before turning left and going a short way downhill along what appeared to be an old 'sunken lane', judging by the small embankments either side.
The meadow between two parts of Poynatt's Wood (there were lots of Pyramidal Orchids here)
The footpath continuing through Poynatt's Wood
The footpath continuing through Poynatt's Wood
The footpath continuing through Poynatt's Wood, now descending in a 'sunken lane'
On reaching the edge of the wood there were some views towards Fingest and Skirmett and around the meeting of valleys at the north end of the Hambleden valley. The path now turned right, to follow the edge of the wood, with a fence on my left. I spotted some Nettle-leaved Bellflower along here, and nearby was some Dark Mullein and another Pyramidal Orchid. The path then turned left and dropped downhill, to reach a gravel drive that led me to the road through Skirmett.
View towards Fingest and Hanger Wood from the edge of Poynatt's Wood
The pah continuing along the edge of Poynatt's Wood or Combe Wood
View over Skirmett, towards Hatchett Wood where I'd be in a short while
Approaching Skirmett
Approaching the road in Skirmett
I turned right, and followed the road for two or three hundred yards before taking a footpath on the left (just before The Frog pub on the right). The path started along a gravel drive between a few residences. I then went right at a path junction, now back on a path I'd walked before (actually I was a little confused at this point, initially not recognising where I was because what used to be a huge open field had been divided into a number of paddocks since I was last here). The path ran for a few hundred yards along a broad grassy strip between wooden fences, with Skirmett over to my right.
The road through Skirmett
The path after I turned left in Skirmett
The next path after I turned right, on the edge of Skirmett (the fences on the left are new, this used to be one huge field)