Pete's Walks - Ibstone, Skirmett and Wheeler End (page 6 of 7)
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 turned left along the lane (which, as I've said, I could have joined earlier), but it almost immediately came to an end (though a drive or track continued ahead). Here I turned right, along the drive to Watercroft Farm (which looked similar to a lane). After a hundred yards or so, I took a footpath on the left that crossed an empty paddock, following a fence on my left. The path then continued through a small wood, going through two gates in quick succession at one point (either side of a trackway between paddocks). On leaving the wood, I crossed a farm track and followed the path downhill through a large arable field - as I did so I spotted a Muntjac moving down the far side of the hedge over to my left. Having already seen some Fallow Deer I wondered if I'd get to see some Roe Deer today - whenever I see two types of deer, I almost always wonder if I'll see the third because I've only once managed to see three types of deer on the same walk (in June 2012). I thought it unlikely, as I hadn't too much further to walk and because I see Roe deer far less often than the others (maybe three or four times a year) - but I did remember once seeing them in this very field! At the bottom of the slope (which was longer than I remembered) I entered Leygrove's Wood and quickly reached a forestry track where I turned left.
The drive to Watercroft Farm
The path after I turned left from the drive to Watercroft Farm
The path continuing down to Leygrove's Wood
The forestry track in Leygrove's Wood, after I turned left
The forestry track in Leygrove's Wood
After a quarter of a mile or so, the track left Leygrove's Wood but then almost immediately entered Pound Wood. Here I soon took a path forking slightly right from the track (another path went fully right, going back to Leygrove's Wood), running through an area of fairly small trees. I bore right when this path met another one coming in from my left, this path soon turning right and running through a part of Pound Wood that was more like a typical Beech Wood. On leaving the wood the path followed a track with very large arable fields either side, the track soon turning left and then bearing slightly right after passing a copse on the left. On reaching a hedge I went over two stiles in quick succession and then followed the path diagonally across a meadow or pasture to the opposite corner (where a wooden fence met a hedge). I then turned left along Bigmore Lane, following it for about half a mile until, just after crossing the M40, it ended at a junction with a minor road.
The path through Pound Wood, after I forked right from the forestry track
The path through Pound Wood
The path through Pound Wood, after I kept right at a junction
Pound Wood
The path continuing from Pound Wood to Bigmore Lane
The path continuing from Pound Wood to Bigmore Lane
Approaching Bigmore Lane
Bigmore Lane
Bigmore Lane