Pete's Walks- Kensworth, Roe End and Bison Hill (page 2 of 5)
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.
On entering Markyate, I took a footpath that started immediately before the first house on the right, that led gently uphill. After 100 yards or so I went straight on where a path forked right. The path continued uphill between a tall mature hedge with gardens beyond and a large corn field on my right - I twice heard and saw a Buzzard flying overhead along here. After about a third of a mile I reached a field corner, where I went through a metal-kissing gate and followed a hedgerow on my left to reach Roe End Lane. I turned right to follow the lane through Roe End. Where the lane ended, with a hedge-lined byway continuing ahead, I turned left along a drive that would take me to Beechwood Home Farm. The drive dropped down into a valley and rose up the other side, now with a wood on the right. Beyond the wood it levelled out and continued between hedgerows.
The start of the path from Markyate to Roe End
The path to Roe End (after I went straight on where another path forked right)
Approaching Roe End (after the two paths merge at a metal Kissing-gate)
Roe End Lane
The drive to Beechwood Home Farm
The drive to Beechwood Home Farm
The drive to Beechwood Home Farm
On reaching a track crossroads, I turned right, soon passing some cottages and the farmyard of Beechwood Home Farm. The track then entered Gravelpit Wood, soon passing a pond on the left. On reaching a junction of tracks I took a footpath going straight on through what was now Great Bradwin's Wood. On the far side of this wood, I turned right and within a hundred yards or so reached a corner of Studham Common. I went left along the top of this eastern section of Studham Common to reach a small car park and a road. Over this, I continued along the top of the central third of the common. Across another road, the path continued through the wooded western section of the common, soon bearing very slightly right and descending slightly.
The drive after I turned right, near Beechwood Home Farm
Pond in Gravelpit Wood
The path continuing through Gravelpit Wood
The path continuing through Great Bradwin's Wood
The eastern section of Studham Common
The central section of Studham Common
The western section of Studham Common