Pete's Walks - Hambleden, Medmenham, Colstrope, Fawley (page 3 of 6)
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.
I went straight on at the lane junction - this was part of a road 'triangle' to my right and when I reached the end of this side of the triangle I crossed the road ahead of me and took a path into Pullingshill Wood. After a short distance I came to a narrow path fork (the OS map shows this is roughly where I moved from Pullingshill Wood to Davenport Wood), where I took the right fork. After about a quarter of a mile, I came to a path T-junction in the wood, where I turned right onto a broader path.
The road triangle
The start of the path going northeast, just inside Pullingshill Wood
This is where I forked right, roughly on the border of Pullingshill Wood and Davenport Wood
The path through Davenport Wood
The path through Davenport Wood
The path in Davenport wood after I turned right at a path T-junction
After a few hundred yards I came to a path crossroads - I was about to go straight on when I thought perhaps I should check the map, and realised that actually I needed to turn left. The path went a short way gently uphill, then left the wood and continued beside a tall hedge on my left and with a hedge and/or fence on my right. There was view along a valley on my right towards a wooded hillside - it was only when I looked at the map a day or two later that I realised that the wooded hillside was on the far side of the Thames, and the area in front of it was near Bisham and Bisham Abbey (where the National Sports Centre is). After a few hundred yards the path switched to the other side of the tall hedgerow, and continued beside it until it reached a track on the edge of the village of Bovingdon Green.
The path after I turned left at a path crossroads at the eastern end of Davenport Wood
The path continuing from Davenport Wood towards Bovingdon Green
The path continuing from Davenport Wood towards Bovingdon Green
Looking right from the path to Bovingdon Green - the wooded slope is on the far side of the Thames, near Bisham Abbey
Approaching Bovingdon Green
I turned left along the track - for the first time since just after leaving Hambleden I was on a path I knew as this was part of the Chiltern Way. After passing a few properties on my right the track ended, but a footpath continued ahead, running between fences with paddocks either side. When I reached a path junction I forked half-right through a metal kissing-gate, leaving the Chiltern Way and once more entering what was new territory for me. The path crossed a small corner of a paddock to another metal kissing-gate, then continued in the same direction across a very large and empty paddock. The path then ran between fences through a small corner of a wood, then continued beside garden boundaries on my left and the wire fence of a meadow on my right. The path then merged with a drive, following it to where it met a lane.
The track out of Bovingdon green
The path from Bovingdon Green
Where I forked right from the path from Bovingdon Green
The path continuing across a huge empty paddock
On the far side of that paddock
Further along the same path
Further along the same path
I crossed the lane and took a path through the wooded Marlow Common on the other side. I went straight on at a path crossroads, then kept left at a path fork, and soon came to where a bridleway crossed the path. I went straight on through a gate, moving from Marlow Common into Lord's Wood as I did so. I soon reached the edge of the wood, where the path turned half-right as it descended steeply downhill through an empty cattle pasture - there were nice views along and across the valley here.
Marlow Common
The path on Marlow Common after I turned left
The path in Lord's Wood after I went straight on at a path crossroads
The path continuing downhill from Lord's Wood