Pete's Walks- Circular walk from Ewelme (page 4 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.
After passing some houses either side of the lane, I took a footpath on the right - this went a few yards down a driveway then forked left into Park Wood. After a short distance I kept right at a path fork, and then when I reached a path junction on the far side of the wood, I turned right, following a hedgerow with a large field of stubble on my right. The OS map shows there is a Young Offenders Institution on the other side of the hedge, but I just saw a few houses here. By the last of the houses the footpath left the field and entered Hazel Wood, continuing just inside the wood (close to the field I'd just left) and soon dropping down into a valley.
Park Wood, Nuffield
Park Wood, Nuffield
The path past the young offenders institution
Hazel Wood
In the bottom of the valley I turned left onto a crossing bridleway, and followed it for just over half a mile until a finger-post indicated where the Ridgeway national trail crossed it. Here I turned right, crossing a large arable field. The path then passed through a small bit of wood, then followed a farm track to reach the grand house of Ewelme Park, on my left.
The bridleway through Hazel Wood
Further along the bridleway, as it approaches the Ridgeway
The Ridgeway, heading north towards Ewelme Park
The Ridgeway, approaching Ewelme Park
View left towards the Oxfordshire Plain
Just past Ewelme Park, I turned left when the the Ridgeway was crossed by a bridleway. The bridleway passed stables on the right and a paddock on the left, then ran steadily downhill, descending the Chiltern escarpment with nice views ahead out over the Oxfordshire Plain. When the bridleway levelled out, it continued beside a hedge on my right until I reached a bridleway crossroads about a mile from Ewelme Park.
Near the start of the bridleway going northwest from Ewelme Park
The bridleway going northwest from Ewelme Park
The bridleway going northwest from Ewelme Park. Four men were working on this new fence a little further along - it's similar to the fence round Whipsnade Zoo, so I wonder what is going to be kept in these fields?
The bridleway going northwest from Ewelme Park
The bridleway going northwest from Ewelme Park - there was suddenly some gorgeous late afternoon light
I don't know what this is, but it's colourful - the berries were more pink than red