WHATEVER the weather, it's nearly always worth making the effort to get outdoors, especially in relatively unspoilt parts of the county. Walking this particular route on a dismal January morning, our attention was caught by a flash of iridescent blue as a kingfisher plunged into a pool at Spindle Wood.

Suddenly the day didn't seem so bad after all, and that was only the start. Further along Green Street we watched as a heron took off from a ditch and flew over an orchard where a flock of fieldfares was demolishing the few remaining fallen apples.

We tripped over pheasants reluctant to break cover in Guises Lane, watched an excited gang of long-tailed tits foraging in a hawthorn hedge and heard the evocative mewing call of a buzzard long before we spotted it soaring high above, dim and shadowy in the fog. While birds were the most obvious creatures about, there were mammals too, both wild and domestic.

Squirrels have never seemed so numerous in Monkwood, a fox peered warily from under a fallen tree near Wichenford and the miniature ponies at Shoulton were a source of wonderment to my nephew, who had never seen anything quite like them in all his eight years.

FACTFILE

Start: Monkwood, between Sinton Green and Wichenford, grid ref SO804606.

Length: 7 miles/11.25km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Farmland, orchards, woodland; no hills.

Footpaths: After decades of neglect and obstruction, there have recently been huge improvements in the parish of Wichenford. A few problems around Shoulton in the neighbouring parishes (Grimley and Hallow) have also been attended to. Work still remains to be done, but there are no major problems on this walk. However, expect intermittent (and occasionally inaccurate) waymarking and take care crossing older stiles and bridges, some of which are dangerously slippery when wet.

Stiles: 35.

Parking: Monkwood.

Buses: Services to Martley go via Wichenford, and the 308 (Parish Link) serves Monkwood too; 0870 608 2608 or www.traveline.org.uk or www.parishlink.net

Refreshments: The Fox, Monkwood Green.

DIRECTIONS

1 Walk through the southern part of Monkwood, staying on the main path and turning right in a clearing to return to the lane. Turn left, then turn right at the main road. Join a footpath on the left, crossing two fields, then turning left in a third. Climb over a wooden fence (beware barbed wire) and proceed through several fields, guided by a succession of stiles. Cross a footbridge and turn left. Cross another footbridge, turn left to a lane and join a path on the right.

2 Walk the length of a narrow field and then through a copse. Proceed along a field-edge path or join the parallel bridleway. Continue in the same direction at a junction, past Shoulton Farm Barn, and then join a footpath on the right at a slippery, rather overgrown stile. Walk to another stile, then turn right past a stable and through a paddock. Go through a gate at the bottom and turn left to cross a slippery footbridge. Go diagonally right across a large field to a stile halfway along the far hedge. This takes you into Spindle Wood. Go straight on through the wood. Pass a pond, go through a gateway, turn left to Green Street then turn right.

3Approaching Greenstreet Farm, take a path on the left and go diagonally across three fields, heading for a gate in a corner of the third, to the left of an oak tree. Turn right along the edge of another field to a corner then go left across the field. Pass through a hedge gap and continue towards Hill Farm. Go through an old metal gate, walk past a pond then bear slightly right to a new wooden gate. Cross a track and go straight on down a slope.

4 Cross a bridge and walk to the far left corner of a field. Go through an open gateway and turn right to cross a footbridge. Proceed along the right-hand edge of a large field. Continue in the same direction after crossing a ditch and a track. At a hedge corner continue straight on across the field to meet the left-hand edge and follow it to the next corner - the last bit is overgrown, but it's not nearly so bad as it looks. Cross a rotting plank-footbridge into another field and bear right to Venn Lane.

5 Turn left, then first right on Poplar Road. Take the third path on the right, after a bungalow called Half Acre. Cross a field then bear right across another to a junction. Go diagonally left to cross a new footbridge then cut across a field corner to cross another footbridge. Go roughly straight on across a large field. Continue past a line of trees and then turn right at a junction. You can use either a field-edge path or the old green track parallel with it, Guises Lane. Unfortunately, the lane is overgrown further along - it's possible to get through, but not easy.

6 Approaching Wichenford village, take a path bearing right, to a gate in the far hedge. Proceed to Venn Lane, turn left, then right on the main road. After 300m, turn left through an orchard. Turn right at Woodhouse Farm and walk through the orchard to find a stile in a hedge. Cross a field, climb a broken stile then keep close to the left edge of a large field. Go through a gate in the corner into another large field and turn left. Cross a stile in the corner and turn right on a bridleway. Go left when it forks and enter Monkwood. Walk through the wood to your starting point.