Arreton

Well, we picked a glorious day for a walk! We parked at Arreton Barns, then headed down the road and turned left by the White Lion pub.  The lane took us up past the church and carp pond and then up to the downs.  We were surrounded by wheat fields and wildflowers, blue butterflies, damselflies and, at one point, a buzzard which got mobbed by crows shortly afterwards.  We turned left before the top of the down, heading towards a disused chalk pit (hidden by undergrowth), then followed the path back towards the village gathering scraped knees, stings from nettles and prickles from thistles along the way. 

Before we got to the village we turned left along another footpath, this one rather more regularly used, until we reached Shepherd's Lane.  At the junction was a vary large pond, a glorious shade of blue; it was a mystery - this pond was not marked on my map, nor was it on either GPS system we had. Curious!  Anyway, we continued down the lane, gawped through the gates of Haseley Manor and beat a hasty retreat when we realised there was a wedding taking place!  Reaching the main road, we crossed and picked up the footpath that went straight through somebody's garden! A dog in the garden next door growled and barked at us until we had climbed over the gate and headed off across the field. We crossed the stile and found ourselves in a large meadow full of buttercups and yellow iris.  This led to even more meadows with even more wild flowers! Heaven! There was even a stream with little wooden-plank footbridges across it.

The path rose upwards again and we followed the path along the edge of a copse, turned right at the end down a little hill then climbed into a sheep paddock and up a steep hill to another stile, a path through fields of potatoes and wheat, across the main road and back to Arreton Barns.  We went in search of ice cream for the children, but it was after 5pm so the kiosks were closed, and the glorious Farmer Jack's Farm Shop only sold large tubs. Shame.  

Route:  http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_3241263.html

Distance:  3.7 miles

Footpaths: A12, A13, A9, A17, A15, A1, A2, A5b