Wickham - Meon Valley Trail and West Walk

18 October 2008

Distance: 4 1/2 miles
Parking: Hampshire County Council Free Car Park
Map: Explorer 119 Meon Valley - Portsmouth, Gosport and Fareham
Map ref for car park: SU575117

For route details click here

One of these days I will walk the 10 miles from Wickham to West Meon, and 10 miles back again, along the dismantled railway that now forms the Meon Valley Trail.

Although for some it might constitute a good day’s hike, it would be nice to take it over a couple of days to have time to sidetrack into the villages along the route: Soberton, Droxford, Meonstoke, Exton and Warnford, as well as Wickham and West Meon themselves.

As well as these pretty villages dotted along the meandering course of the River Meon, there are other places of interest to interest, including the ancient hill fort of Old Winchester Hill to the east of Meonstoke and Beacon Hill west of Exton and Warnford.

Beacon Hill and Old Winchester Hill both have nature reserves, and are intersected by the South Downs Way and Monarch’s Way. Other long distance paths also cross the course of the Meon Valley Trail, perfect for creating circular walks from village to viewpoint and back again.

My walk today took in about 1½ miles of the Meon Valley Trail from the free car park at Wickham to the point where the Pilgrims’ Trail crosses it and heads into West Walk, an area of woodland remains of the ancient Forest of Bere, now managed by the Forestry Commission and offering some excellent walking.

The sun showed through in fits and starts, and although autumnal the day was not unpleasantly cold. As I was walking during the latter part of the afternoon the light had that warm, soft luminescence that comes only in the autumn, giving a golden glow to even the darkest pine trees.
Not today, but previously, I have seen stoats playing on the bridge over the river at the trout fishery, where I was also passed by a deer. On that same day, a buzzard soared over my head as I walked among the trees at West Walk.