Pete's Walks - Ibstone, Skirmett and Wheeler End (page 1 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 did this circular walk of about 13.4 miles on Saturday, 9th March 2019. It was a repeat of a walk I did in December 2011, which I've repeated once in the opposite (clockwise) direction on a foggy day in January 2016. I knew I'd only walked the route clockwise that one time, but I was very surprised to find that I hadn't repeated this walk in the anti-clockwise direction (I've been through my 'Walks Diary' pages twice to check). I was also surprised that it was so long ago that I first walked it.
I parked along the road through Ibstone, near The Fox country inn (grid reference SU751938). I walked back up the road, with the wooded part of Ibstone Common on my left, and then took a bridleway (part of the Chiltern Way) going sharply left through the common. The bridleway was muddy, but not as bad as I'd feared - there'd been rain during the week and overnight, and it had rained during most of my drive to Ibstone. I soon passed two ponds next to each other on my right, then I bore right at a junction. I now had the open area of Ibstone Common close on my left, and at the next junction I turned left and followed a bridleway along the edge of the open area of the common, with a hedgerow on my right. After a few hundred yards I took a path going half-left to the left end of a line of trees, where I crossed a drive and then continued along the edge of the common. In a corner I rejoined the bridleway (now a drive), and then immediately reached Gray's Lane where I turned right.
The road through Ibstone
Start of the bridleway through the wooded part of Ibstone Common
The bridleway through the wooded part of Ibstone Common, passing a couple of ponds
Ibstone Common
Ibstone Common, after the path goes half-left
Ibstone Common, after I crossed the drive
I soon passed the intriguingly named Hell Corner Farm on my left, and then continued along the lane. At the end of the lane there was some construction work in progress that involved a slight diversion, but I was soon back on the correct course of the bridleway that continues from Gray's Lane (actually this is still called Gray's Lane). It dropped steadily downhill for about a quarter of a mile, passing a nice line of beech trees on the right. There was a fairly heavy shower as I walked down here, but by the time I turned right (where the bridleway turned slightly left) it had passed over. The path I took dropped downhill through a small area of rough grass and then down through a large sheep pasture (complete with many young lambs). The path then ran a short way through a wood to reach a drive on the Wormsley Estate, where I turned left and followed the drive to Holloway Lane. Across this a path followed a fence on my right through a large empty pasture, heading uphill to Idlecombe Wood. On entering the wood, some 'steps' continued uphill a short distance, until I met a broad path where I turned left.
Gray's Lane, Ibstone - the building on the left is Hell Corner farm
Gray's Lane
The bridleway that is the continuation of Gray's Lane
The bridleway that is the continuation of Gray's Lane
The footpath after I turned right from the bridleway
The Wormsley Estate drive, after I turned left
The path from Holloway Lane up to Idlecombe Wood
The start of the path contouring through Idlecombe Wood