Pete's Walks - Christmas Common, Watlington, Fire Wood (page 2 of 4)
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 almost half a mile the bridleway left the field in a corner, and immediately came to a junction of tracks and drives. I turned right here to head to Dame Alice Farm (there was a parallel gravel track over the hedge to my left). After a few hundred yards I passed Dame Alice Farm, and then after another one or two hundred yards I turned left onto a footpath (not sure there was a sign here, but it's an obvious junction). The path ran between hedgerows, but fairly soon there was an opening on the left where I had a view towards Watlington Hill (I knew this was coming up because I walked this path about three and a half weeks ago). The path ran for about half a mile, bringing me back to Howe Road with a property named Dumble Dore (an old term for Bumble-bee) on my right.
The drive to Dame Alice Farm
The drive to Dame Alice Farm
Approaching Dame Alice Farm
The track continuing from Dame Alice Farm
The start of the path to Dumble Dore
View of Watlington Hill from the path to Dumble Dore
The path to Dumble Dore
The path to Dumble Dore
I went just a little way right, then took a footpath that started across the road (I think I'd only walked this path in the opposite direction before). This followed a farm track with a hedge on my right and the remains of a strip of maize on my left. On reaching the next field corner, the path continued fairly gently uphill through a small wood. After about a quarter of a mile, the path ended where it met a bend in a bridleway. I went more or less straight on here (the other part of the bridleway went right). After a hundred yards or so a footpath forked left, but I stayed on the bridleway - this section of it was new to me. The bridleway continued uphill more steeply, now just inside the southwestern edge of Greenfield Copse. After several hundred yards it emerged from the wood and followed a drive a few yards to reach the minor road that runs through Greenfield, where I turned left.
The start of the path to Greenfield
The path to Greenfield
The path to Greenfield
The path to Greenfield
View right from the path to Greenfield
The path to Greenfield
The bridleway to Greenfield
The bridleway to Greenfield
The bridleway to Greenfield
The bridleway to Greenfield
The bridleway to Greenfield
The bridleway to Greenfield
The road through Greenfield