Pete's Walks- Watlington Hill, Nuffield, Russell's Water (page 2 of 7)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
Back on familiar territory, I turned left and followed the bridleway gradually uphill, at first between hedgerows and then through a wood of mainly beech trees. At the top of the hill, the path turned left along the drive from Woods Farm and followed it to a lane.
The bridleway from Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway from Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway from Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway from Dame Alice Farm, approaching the lane
Across the lane I took a footpath along the surfaced drive to Coates Farm. Beyond the farm the drive was more roughly surfaced - it soon entered a wood and emerged on the other side into the hamlet of Cookley Green. Here I turned right along a lane (initially with a cricket ground over the hedge on my right).
The drive to Coates Farm - I'm sure it's pronounced Coats but I keep finding myself pronouncing it Co-art-ez, after Sebastien Coates, the former Liverpool defender
Between Coates Farm and Cookley Green
Between Coates Farm and Cookley Green
The lane from Cookley Green
When I reached Church Wood on my left, I immediately turned left onto a bridleway - I'd never been this way before, always previously going a few yards further down the lane and then following the Chiltern Way through Church Wood. The bridleway was very pleasant to follow, as it ran for almost three-quarters of a mile beside Church Wood and then Haycroft Wood on my right. Not for the last time today I was grateful for the shade of the trees as it was a really warm day (about 25C was the forecast).
The bridleway along the eastern edge of Church Wood
The bridleway along the eastern edge of Church Wood
The bridleway along the eastern edge of Church Wood, or possibly now Haycroft Wood
The bridleway along the eastern edge of Church Wood, or possibly now Haycroft Wood
The bridleway along the eastern edge of Haycroft Wood
The bridleway ended by an attractive cottage, which turned out to be a lodge for Swyncombe House. I turned sharply right along a path that followed the surfaced drive towards Swyncombe House (out of sight in the valley ahead, I'd glimpse it a bit later on in the walk). When the drive turned left, the path went straight on through Haycroft Wood. After a short distance I came to something like a crossroads of tracks - I wanted to join a track just a few yards left here, but it wasn't clear whether I went left here to reach the track, or straight on to meet it a few yards further on. Anyway, I turned left along that track, immediately enjoying a fine view out from the wood over Swyncombe and out to the Oxfordshire Plain.
The start of the footpath along the drive to Swyncombe House
The footpath along the drive to Swyncombe House
The same footpath, now in Haycroft Wood
The view over Swyncombe and the Oxfordshire Plain, from the gap between Church Wood and Haycroft Wood