Pete's Walks - Cowleaze Wood and Turville Heath (part 3)
When I reached the start of Ibstone Common on my left, I followed a path going left along the edge of the common (rejoining Walk 16 of the Chiltern Chain Walk), then crossed part of the common to reach the village cricket pitch where I sat on a bench to eat my lunch. It was now just after 1pm. Four Red Kites were flying about nearby as I ate my cheese and crackers, and I reflected that the cricket team wouldn’t be too impressed with what a very active mole had done to their outfield!
Ibstone Common, from where I first reached it
I then crossed over the common diagonally (aiming for the far corner), passing the huge standing stone in its centre - I have just discovered a photo on the web that calls it the Millennium Stone, so it’s obviously not the original boundary stone that gives the village part of its name (the village is still on the border of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire). In the corner of the common, I entered Commonhill Wood and turned left, heading downhill back into the Wormsley Estate. For a while I was on the route of the Chiltern Way, but after a while it turned left as my path gradually turned right as it descended through the trees to reach the valley bottom.
Ibstone Common, looking back past the Millennium Stone to the cricket pitch
The Wormsley valley, from the path from Ibstone
The path from Ibstone, descending through woods to the Wormsley valley
The path from Ibstone, descending through woods to the Wormsley valley
The path then continued along the valley bottom on a good farm track. Soon there were hedges either side, and I glimpsed the cricket pitch and the big house, Wormsley Park, over to my left. The estate was once owned by the late Paul Getty II, who was fond of staging cricket matches at his private ground here after being introduced to cricket by Mick Jagger. The track ended at a bend of a drive leading to the house. I continued ahead along the drive, passing some magnificent Beech trees and spotting a herd of some type of deer in a large fenced area of parkland over to my left.
The path continuing through the Wormsley valley
The path through the Wormsley estate
The drive through the Wormsley estate
Beyond a farm and an attractive yellow-painted cottage, the right-of-way forked left from the drive, heading fairly gently uphill through the trees of Langleygreen Plantation. I’d yet to see any wildflowers in bloom this year, but I did spot the leaves of a Primrose here. Along the top of the hill I reached a path crossroads, where I turned left, descending steeply through the trees and then across a small meadow to reach the grounds of Lower Vicar’s Farm.
Near the start of the path through Langleygreen Plantation
The path through Langleygreen Plantation
The path descending from Langleygreen Plantation
I turned left for a few yards along a drive, then turned right on a footpath. It was now a long steady slog uphill through a huge empty pasture (Note 20/09/15: the pasture has now been split into two fields, the top one often planted with maize), a bit of a sting in the tail of this walk. The scenery all around was lovely, so at least I had good excuses to stop and take photos. Near the top of the hill I entered Cowleaze Wood, and I then just had to follow the path for about half a mile through the wood to return to the car park.
Looking back across the valley, over Lower Vicar's Farm towards Langleygreen Plantation
The path through Cowleaze Wood
Looking out to the Oxfordshire Plain from the road by the car park at Cowleaze Wood
I remembered thinking that this was one of the best walks I’d ever done in the Chilterns when I first did it 18 months ago, and I wasn’t disappointed with it today. The scenery is lovely almost throughout the entire route, there are very good views at several points, lots of woodland walking, five steepish ascents (well, by Chiltern standards!), attractive villages at Christmas Common and Ibstone, Red Kites galore and numerous Buzzards. This area is one of my three most favourite sections of the Chiltern Hills (the others being Great Hampden/Little Hampden and the nearby Hambleden/Turville/Fingest).