Pete's Walks- Cobblershill and Wendover Woods (page 1 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.
Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk
I did this roughly 11.2 mile circular walk on Saturday, 23rd November 2013. It was a new route for me, with just over half the walk on paths I'd not used before.
I started walking shortly after 10.40am. I had again deliberately started late, as I'm still not fully fit and only wanted to walk for about 3-4 hours with a short lunch stop in the middle. I started at the Cobblershill car park - it's not actually in the hamlet of that name, so perhaps I should refer to it as the Cobblershill Lane car park or the Cockshoots Wood car park (anyway, it's clearly marked on the OS map). [IMPORTANT NOTE: When I tried to use the car park on 27/9/14 it was closed - if I did the walk again I'd start at Coombe Hill]. I turned right and walked down Cobblershill Lane for a few hundred yards until a point where paths went off on either side. I took the path going left, crossing an all-weather horse gallop and going straight on where another path almost immediately forked left. Where the tall hedge on my right ended, I turned right on a path I'd not walked before (I'd only walked the path going straight on once before, on a walk I did in June this year). The path soon reached a tarmac drive, where I went right for a few yards to reach Russell Farm, where I immediately turned left. The path left the farmyard on a broad green strip next to a hedge on the right, but soon switched to the right of the hedge at a gateway. As I continued beside the hedge with paddocks on my right, I could see ahead towards the wooded Boddington Hill that I would pass by later on.
Cobblershill Lane
The start of the path from Cobblershill Lane
The path from Russell Farm (Boddington Hill in the distance)
Further on, the path entered Sermon's Wood (named on my Google map but not on the OS map) and I soon came to a junction where I turned left. The path headed west through the wood, very gradually climbing uphill. There were one or two spots where the fallen leaves obscured the path, but the route was fairly well marked by a mixture of white and yellow arrows painted on trees and I had little difficulty in following it. Eventually the path left the wood and ran between wooden fences to a stile or gate and the bridleway running south from the hamlet of Dunsmore. I followed the bridleway left for a short distance before taking a footpath starting on the right. I was now back on familiar territory (in fact that walk I did in June reached the same point by a different route).
The path going west through Sermon's Wood
The path going west through Sermon's Wood
The path going west through Sermon's Wood
The end of the path, approaching the bridleway south of Dunsmore
There was initially a garden to my left, then the path dropped downhill through part of Scrub Wood to meet a bridleway. Here I turned right, and followed the bridleway downhill through the wood. In the valley bottom I turned right once more, on a short footpath that soon brought me to Dunsmore Old Farm. Here I turned left on a bridleway. Just beyond a cottage on the right it entered a wood, and within a few yards I came to a junction where I turned right onto a footpath heading north into Fugsdon Wood.
The path between the bridleways, in Scrub Wood
The bridleway descending through Scrub Wood
The bridleway going to Dunsmore Old Farm
The start of the path going north through Fugsdon Wood
This was another new path for me and it was very pleasant walking through the beech trees here, especially when the sun came out briefly and lit up their glorious Autumn colours. When I came to a path T-junction, I turned left. The new path took me westwards through the wood, soon turning slightly more northwest-wards. I went straight on at a path crossroads (I've used the path I crossed once or twice), and continued northwest, somewhere moving from Fugsdon Wood into Linton's Wood.
The path going north through Fugsdon Wood
The path going northwest through Fugsdon Wood
The path going northwest through Fugsdon Wood
The path going northwest through Fugsdon Wood
The path continuing northwest after a a path crossroads, moving from Fugsdon Wood to Linton's Wood
The path going northwest through Linton's Wood