Buckland Circular Walk

Route

From the front of St. Andrews Church at Buckland Monachorum, take the signposted path by the Lady Modyford Hall, following the boundary wall of the old graveyard on your right. Shortly after the old graveyard on the right ends and near some stone steps (an old stone stile) turn RIGHT, following the public footpath sign. After 75 yards you reach a stream on the right. Cross a bridge over the stream, into the field beyond. Keeping the hedge on your right, proceed up the field and pass through a gap by a granite post. Continue straight ahead uphill, into the next field. At the top of this field exit through a metal gate onto a lane and turn LEFT.

After 100 yards turn RIGHT up some steps in the bank (be careful you can easily miss these), and through a metal kissing gate. Follow the path along the right-hand side of the field. After about 100 yards and by a wall on the right, the track drops down into a hollow and crosses a small stone bridge over a stream. At the end of the wall, bear half-left across the field ahead, to cross over onto a farm lane by passing through a metal gate or kissing gate. Continue ahead through another metal kissing gate, keeping a hedge to your right. After 500 yards at the end of the track, go through a metal gate to reach a road. Cross over, following the road sign to “Venton & Stokehill”. Go past a farm entrance on the right and continue ahead. Exactly where the lane bears off sharp left, turn RIGHT (indicated by a public footpath sign on the right), through a metal kissing gate (be careful, the sign can be obscured by vegetation).

(A) Enter the field and head diagonally right down the field to a gate in the hedge by a rutted farm track. Continue ahead along the left-hand side of the field, following the tree-topped wall. Continue into the next field and cross over a stream using the bridge. Turn immediately LEFT to follow alongside the stream, and then proceed uphill, keeping the hedge on your left. Go through a wooden gate and at the top of the hill, pass through another gate onto a lane (by Broom House).

(B) Turn RIGHT down the lane. After 300 yards, at Blowiscombe Junction, continue ahead down a narrow lane to the village of Milton Coombe. Walk past the Who’d Have Thought It pub (C) and proceed up the steep hill to a road junction. Turn RIGHT and after 30 yards, cross over the road by a bus turning bay and pick up the track on the LEFT, just beyond a bus shelter, through a metal kissing gate. Proceed along the field keeping to a wire fence on the left. After 200 yards cross a farm track, go through a wooden gate and continue ahead across a field. After 200 yards, exit the field by a wooden gate and onto a tarmac track. Cross over and continue ahead for 25 yards to reach, and cross, a driveway. Pass through the metal kissing gate just to the right of the road and continue straight ahead with the wire fence on your left. After 100 yards pass through a gate (not the gate on your left that leads to the road). Continue through a spinney and out through a metal kissing gate onto a lane. Cross over and through another metal kissing gate and proceed uphill, following the public footpath sign, At the top of the wooded hill, pass through a wooden kissing gate onto the road and turn LEFT. Continue along this road for ½ mile passing the turn off to Bere Alston on the left and carry on to a T-junction.

(D) Turn LEFT and after 50 yards turn RIGHT into Cuxton Meadows. After just a few yards take the concrete public footpath on the left and after a further 200 yards, just before reaching a farm, turn RIGHT along a grassy enclosed lane. Proceed through a metal kissing gate and follow the tarmac track to the left where it enters a housing estate. Bear right and when the road bears sharp right again, continue ahead along a road and then a tarmac path. Go through a wooden gate to reach the Drake Manor Inn and the main street of Buckland Monachorum.