Pete's Walks- Watlington Hill and Cookley Green (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.
This path led very slightly uphill through another wood to reach a corner of the vast grassy expanse of Russell's Water Common. I continued along the edge of the common, with trees on my right. About fifty yards before the trees ended, I turned right on to a bridleway that soon led on to a drive or track past some cottages in Russell's Water. This turned left, then went right to pass the pond that gives the village its name.
The path continuing across the road, heading towards Russell's Water Comon
The path continuing around the edge of Russell's Water Common
The pond in Russell's Water
I turned left along the lane through the village (I was rather surprised to see a Pyramidal Orchid in the small bit of grass between the road and the pond), and then after a hundred yards or so I turned right on to a bridleway. This was soon going downhill into a valley, with hedges blocking any views on either side, though I did see some butterflies here, mainly Meadow Browns but also a Marbled White. At a bridleway T-junction in the valley bottom, I turned right (leaving the route of that walk I did four weeks ago, that I'd been following since Fire Wood) and soon realised I was back on the course of the mountain bike route (I'd left it when I'd taken the permissive path in Shambridge Wood). This time I was walking against the traffic flow, and had to be careful when the bridleway narrowed or where I couldn't see far ahead because of a bend. I probably saw 15-20 cyclists in the three-quarters of a mile of bridleway that took me to the village of Cookley Green.
Near the start of the bridleway from Russell's Water - I would soon be walking through the trees going along the valley bottom on the right
The bridleway from Russell's Water
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway entering Cookley Green
On reaching the road through Cookley Green, I went a few yards left then crossed over and walked along the right edge of the freshly mown green here. I stopped on a bench at the end of the green, to drink some water and to make a decision over my route. I'd now been walking for two hours, and it was now a very hot and quite sunny afternoon. I figured the shorter of the two routes I'd planned (north via Coates Farm and Dame Alice Farm - see here for a description when I did it on a walk just over a year ago) would take me just over an hour, the longer route just over two hours. Apart from the post-viral fatigue, I'd also been suffering from a cold for the last few days, but I didn't feel too bad at all and decided to do the longer walk - in any case, my original aim for today's walk had been to do a walk from Watlington Hill that included Swyncombe Downs, so it would have been a shame to have missed that out. So I continued in roughly the same direction I'd followed across the green, down a lane (Church Lane) going west, still following the route of the Chiltern Way. I ignored a bridleway going left along the edge of Church Wood, but a little further on turned left and followed an attractive path through the wood. After a while this started to descend a slope, and I went straight on at two junctions where paths went left.
The green at Cookley Green
The lane from Cookley Green
The path through Church Wood
The path through Church Wood
The path through Church Wood