Pete's Walks-Deacon Hill and Pegsdon (page 1 of 2)
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 3.6 miles on Saturday, May 25th, 2019. It was a repeat of a walk I first did in May 2015, the aim of the walk being to allow me to visit the Knocking Hoe nature reserve to see the Burnt-tip Orchids there. This time, though, I chose to start from the car park at Pegsdon rather than the one on the B655 near Deacon Hill (I've marked it on my Google map)
I started walking at about 10.50, following the lane away from the B655 and turning right along the dead-end lane through Pegsdon. At the end of the lane I turned left along a long drive (initially with houses on my right), heading to Pegsdon Common Farm. The drive turned right and then left. Shortly after this latter turn, a footpath went right, across a field of green corn. The path then went up some steps, and carried on uphill beside a wood on my left and with a view to Deacon Hill over to the right. The path continued alongside a hedge with another field of corn on my left, and then turned left to follow another side of the same field for several hundred yards. It then turned right, with a fence on my left separating me from the Knocking Hoe nature reserve.
The lane through Pegsdon
The lane through Pegsdon
The footpath to Knocking Hoe, along the drive to Pegsdon Common Farm
The footpath to Knocking Hoe, just before it turns right from the drive to Pegsdon Common Farm
The footpath to Knocking Hoe
Looking right to Deacon Hill
The footpath to Knocking Hoe
The footpath to Knocking Hoe
The path continuing next to the Knocking Hoe nature reserve
As I came to a junction with a bridleway, I went through a gate on the left and spent a pleasant 35 minutes or so in the nature reserve, successfully looking for Burnt-tip Orchids and Pasque Flowers (actually I only saw one of the latter this year). On returning to the junction with the bridleway, I turned left. After a couple of hundred yards or so I turned right, following the edge of a large corn field (on my right) all the way back to the B655 road. I crossed over carefully, and turned right, following the road for maybe a quarter of a mile to reach a small car park.
View over the Knocking Hoe nature reserve
The path after I turned right, heading to the B655
The B655 (before I crossed over)