Marks Hall and Bunsgate Woods Walk

From the car park, walk out of the car entrance (not the exit) and back up the approach road. Follow this, past the white gates that mark the estate boundary, for 0.6 miles. Turn right, down the tarmac lane signposted to The Old Rectory. (This is the alternative parking spot, and also where you pick up the route if you have walked from the bus stop.) Walk down this lane and past the impressive spread, with its white railings, that once housed vicars (not anymore, I'll warrant). The lane becomes a track, and then a path leading to a gap on the left side of a wooden five-bar gate.

Go through the gap and bear left, to follow the narrow path down the left side of a wooden fence and garden hedge. At the end of the hedge you come to a path T-junction. Turn right to follow the next side of the garden boundary. Cross the wooden footbridge over the stream and go straight on, ignoring the path that goes off right by the stream. (Although the way is straight on, immediately in front is a very wet boggy patch, so the path goes round this to the left.) Walk ahead up the access drive (this serves the house you can see on your right). Follow the track to the right of a farm and large farm house, to come out on a lane, Ambridge Road. Turn right, and keep straight on where a branch of lane goes left. The lane becomes unpaved and goes past a traffic sign and metal barrier, to stop cars and motorbikes between the months of September and March. Follow this track through mature woodland and coppice for about a mile, until you come out on to a tarmac lane.

Turn right to walk down this very quiet dead-end lane. Walk past the various attractive houses, ignoring paths that go off to the left and right. The lane becomes a track and dives into woodland, past another sign and barrier preventing motors between September and March. After a while you pass a timber yard, set back on the left, after which the track has been concreted. You come to a junction of tracks where the concrete turns right, and you turn left. This track becomes muddy and, later on, deeply rutted. This stretch obviously can get very wet, and walkers have created an avoiding path alongside the left side of the track, through the coppice stools. The track emerges to a junction with a sharp bend in a tarmac lane. Walk ahead to join this lane, (the right-hand branch of the lane, so not left!). Follow the lane through a hamlet of generally attractive houses (Burton's Green). Just beyond the last house a footpath goes off on the left, which you ignore, closely followed by one on the right. Which you take.

Follow this path as it runs down a field boundary, and then a wood, on your right-hand side. At the end of the field, swing left for a few yards, before turning back right to go through a gap in the hedge and across the next field (there is a yellow arrow on a post to show the way). Follow the visible path straight across this field towards a farm that becomes visible once you are over a slight ridge. When you reach the bank in front of the farm buildings, turn left and walk to the field boundary hedge. Here you turn right, to walk down the side of the hedge. You will see a path becoming more visible in front of you, which keeps straight on, into bushes, as the open grassy area swings to the right. The path comes out on a tarmac lane, on to which you turn right. Follow the road until you see, on the right, a pair of large white barrier gates and, beyond them, a wider road. This is an access road to an industrial estate, built on a WWII airfield. Turn right to walk down this access road (there is a wide, mown verge on the far side). The access road swings to the left, and reveals that a flying club and air ambulance base have been lurking on the other side of the conifer hedge. Perhaps not the greatest spot for lovers of rural scenery, but arguably the best location on my walks for plane spotters. When you have walked round the left-hand bend in the road (across the end of the runway) and are standing opposite the Air Ambulance depot building, you will see a sign for a Permissive footpath. Turn right here, to leave the road and walk down the grass on the right-hand side of the trees.

The path continues down the side of the trees until the end of the grassy area, where it swings left to pass through a gap between trees. You will emerge into a second grass area (I'm not sure that it qualifies to be a 'field'). Cross this grass and, at the far end, follow the path which swings to the right to reach a T-junction with a concreted path. Turn left on to this. After 400 metres, turn right onto a path through a gap in a timber fence. This gap is guarded by two large trunks, to prevent access by vehicles, and is indicated by a yellow arrow on a post. The path runs down an impressive avenue, formed by two rows of trees. On the right side is a high deer fence, and beyond this the attractively landscaped gardens of Marks Hall. Part way along, the path becomes tarmac. At the end, it swings to the left to run through the estate buildings of Marks Hall. It carries straight on, past these. 220 metres further on, a track goes off to the right, signposted by a wooden Public Footpath fingerpost. Here you have two choices. If you have parked on the roadside (by the junction with the lane to The Old Rectory), carry straight on here. The lane joins the one to the car park, and you carry on to reach your car. (This is also the way back to the bus.) Alternatively, if you have parked in the Marks Hall car park, turn right to take the path that runs on the left side of a hedge. Cross the attractive bridge over the water, and then turn left by the ticket booth for the gardens to return to the car park.