Today we walked for an hour, maybe an hour and a half in the area of Gilbert Street, just north of the South Downs National Park. Gilbert Street sounds like a street. It isn’t, just part of the loosely connected settlements in the Ropley/Monkwood/North Street area, southwest of Alton.

From Ropely we crossed a vast hayfield to towards Lyewood House:

Don’t play on the round bales we were told on their introduction in the 1980s. I preferred the rectangular ones we could build dens with.

Each field a whole other scene:

Views to the west, climbing higher

In Little Down wood

Near Lyeway Farm

Cottage at Swelling Hill

Into Old Down Wood

Down the hill to Gilbert Street

On St Swithuns Way, passing sheep and horses

And back to the start at Ropley

 

A good walk with many changes of countryside within quite a small area.