Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove Common, Watlington Hill, Northend (page 4 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.
The path initially ran through a Beech wood. After some distance it changed from Beech to a mixture of deciduous trees, I presume this is where Shotridge Wood ends and Blackmoor Wood begins. I spotted a Roe deer here, and when it ran off I saw that it had a fawn with it (I didn't get a photo). Eventually (about half a mile after the last junction, according to the OS map) I spotted white arrows indicating a junction (on a tree just left of the path). I turned right, this being a path I'd only walked twice previously. It started quite steeply uphill, but only for a short while before turning slightly left and rising more gently. Further on there was quite a lot of holly bushes, then the path turned right, soon leaving the wood and running between gardens to reach a drive. At the end of the drive, I turned left along the road through Northend (like Southend, named after its position within the parish of Turville).
The path descending through Blackmore Wood
The path descending through Blackmore Wood
The start of the path through Blackmore Wood after I turned right
The path through Blackmore Wood
The path continuing from Blackmore Wood into Northend
The path continuing from Blackmore Wood into Northend
I followed the road until some trees started on the right, where I took a bridleway that started on that side. I kept keeping right at some path junctions and soon reached a gate, through which I turned left between garden boundaries (Launders Farm was to my right). Through another gate it followed a hedge on my left, and continued straight on where the hedge ended, following a slight valley gradually downhill.
The recent heatwave (fourth of the year!) brought a huge influx of Clouded Yellow butterflies to the UK. There have been lots of reports of people seeing them, including at two or three places near me. So I was rather hoping that I might get lucky and see one, and sure enough I did! This field near Northend had been left fallow this year, so it was full of daisies and other wildflowers. Close to the path there were a lot of thistles, whose purple flowers were attracting a lot of butterflies, including several Painted Ladies and a Red Admiral. Suddenly I saw a butter-yellow butterfly, it could only be a Clouded Yellow! A second one soon appeared, and I eventually saw six or seven. I couldn't get a photo, until just when I was going to leave the field and continue with my walk, a Clouded Yellow flew by me and landed near enough for me to get a photo. I've only seen them four times before, and those times were all in nature reserves where I'd been told I could see them. This was the first time I'd come across them by chance, by myself.
I then continued along the path through part of Fire Wood.
The road through Northend
The path after I turned right in Northend
The bridleway near Launders Farm, Northend
The bridleway between Northend and Fire Wood
The bridleway between Northend and Fire Wood
Fire Wood
I went straight on when the path crossed a bridleway. The path soon rose quite steeply to reach the edge of the wood. The path then continued uphill through a field, turning right on the far side to reach Hollandridge Lane (a track).
Fire Wood, after I crossed a bridleway
The path continuing from Fire Wood to Hollandridge Lane