I revisited route I had walked last summer and thought not accessible, to discover that it is off-road wheelchair accessible if you cut the corner off at the only non-accessible kissing gate. The route is 6.8km/4.2 miles, only 200m shorter than if you negotiated the last kissing gate. Open OS Maps in new window.
The route is a combination of muddy footpaths across fields, dirt tracks, and quiet country lanes. Open OS Maps in new window.
Join the path across the fields behind Bighton Village and The Three Horseshoes, and head east until you come to a private estate. Turn left up the drive, and then follow the way markers between two cottages and through Bighton Woods.
At the end of the woods pass through the gate and continue straight ahead up the side of the field. At the second ‘junction’, take the left fork through the trees emerging into a field, then turn right into the field keeping the fence on your right.
Continuing along the side of the field you will come to a wooden kissing gate. If you pull the gate towards you it can pulled past the post and opened wide to get a buggy/wheelchair through.
At the second kissing gate (which you can’t get through) turn left, even though the footpath is way marked straight ahead, and follow the hedge towards the farm buildings and a large metal gate. The field is not labelled as private, as other tracks were back in the private woods, and there are no farm animals to worry about. Walk through the (open) gates and then turn left on the farm track, keeping the fields on your left until the lane literally becomes a dirt track (muddy after a day of rain).
Before you reach Nettlebeds Lane you will see a track cutting diagonally across the field to your left. This path is wheelchair accessible, although it gets a little bit narrow where the path joins the road. Turn left on the road and walk back down to Bighton down a narrow but quiet country lane with good visibility, and enough of a verge to get at least part of the way of the road.
Once you come back to Bighton, turn up the short ramp on your left by the houses, and walk across the field to the village hall or pub.
Parking - I parked behind Bighton Village Hall, Bighton Dean Lane SO24 9RE. The Three Horseshoes just along the road also has a car park, and the walk can be accessed from their back garden.
Toilets - no public toilets in Bighton. The nearest Changing Places toilets are Winchester Science Centre, Telegraph Way, Winchester, SO21 1HZ, Tesco Winchester Extra, Easton Lane, Winchester SO23 7RS, The Discovery Centre, Jewry Street, Winchester SO23 8SB.
Refreshments - The Three Horseshoes, Bighton, Alresford, Hamsphire, SO24 9RE
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