Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove Common, Watlington Hill, Northend (page 3 of 5)
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.
Immediately after going through a third gate, I turned left to follow a path up to the top of Watlington Hill. This ran a short way through a wood, including a section of Yew trees. It then ran beside the Yew wood on my right. The path had so far been gaining height gently, but shortly after the Yew Wood ended I turned slightly right on to a fainter path that climbed more steeply. At the top of the hill I stopped to take some photos.
The path up Watlington Hill, after I turned left immediately after a gate
The path up Watlington Hill
The path up Watlington Hill
The path up Watlington Hill
The path up Watlington Hill
View from the top of Watlington Hill, looking northwest
View from the top of Watlington Hill, looking west
I then continued along the top of the hill, sometimes with views to Shirburn Hill and Pyrton Hill on my left. The path went though a gate, and it was then surfaced as it led on to a small bit of wood and then the Watlington Hill car park.
The path along the top of Watlington Hill
The path along the top of Watlington Hill
The path continuing to the Watlington Hill car park
The path continuing to the Watlington Hill car park
From the car park entrance I turned right along the road, following it for a straight quarter of a mile to a T-junction on the edge of Christmas Common. I turned left, and just after leaving the village turned right onto a footpath that started down a drive. When the drive turned right, I continued on into Shotridge Wood, the path soon curving left. On reaching a junction I went right, the path curving right and passing some small pits on my right. I soon came to another path junction, where I turned left onto a long path that descends gradually through the woods to eventually reach the Wormsley Valley, though I wasn't following it that far today.
The road from Watlington Hill to Christmas Common
The road after I turned left in Christmas Common
The start of the path from Christmas Common
The path from Christmas Common
The path from Christmas Common, after I turned right (I turned left at a junction after a hundred yards or so)
Near the start of the path descending through Shotridge Wood