Pete's Walks - Watlington Hill and Park Corner (page 3 of 5)
The byway soon passed Westwood Manor Farm, and then narrowed as it ran for some distance between old hedgerows. I noticed a lot of Nettle-leaved Bellflowers amongst the vegetation on either side of me along here. I stopped to take a photo at a point where a wood started on the left, and as I did so a Buzzard took off from just feet away in the field on my right (needless to say I'd already seen several Red Kites, which are so common in this part of the Chilterns). A little further on the byway ended on a quiet lane in Park Corner, where I turned left to reach the main road that passes through the village (the Watlington-Nettlebed road).
The bridleway from Upper Bix Bottom, heading to Westwood Manor Farm
The bridleway near Westwood Manor Farm
The bridleway continuing towards Park Corner
The bridleway continuing towards Park Corner
The bridleway continuing towards Park Corner (a Buzzard took off from a few feet away in the field on the right just as I took this shot)
Lane in Park Corner
Across the road a bridleway continued westwards, initially with a wood on the left and then running between hedgerows for a while before entering a long thin belt of trees. I almost forgot to turn right at a path crossroads after a few hundred yards (the Chiltern Way continues straight on), but remembered where I was going in the nick of time. A path followed the edge of a field gently uphill with a narrow bit of wood on my left. In the field corner I turned left, now with a wood on my right (I soon had my third Fallow deer sighting of the day here). Beyond a large corn field and then a meadow (on my right), the path entered another wood, soon turning right to reach the long drive to the grand house of Ewelme Park.
The bridleway going west from Park Corner
The bridleway going west from Park Corner
The bridleway going west from Park Corner
The path going north from the bridleway from Park Corner
The footpath continuing towards Ewelme Park
The footpath continuing towards Ewelme Park
I turned left along the drive, almost immediately passing some white cottages. Keeping right at a fork, I soon reached a bridleway crossing where I turned right along a section of the Ridgeway National trail, following it through the farmyard here and then along a track. After a while the track turned left and ran along a right-hand hedge, with views over the corn field on my left to the flat lands of the Oxfordshire Plain.
The drive to Ewelme Park
The Ridgeway, heading east from Ewelme Park
The Ridgeway, heading east from Ewelme Park