Pete's Walks- Christmas Common, Turville, Cadmore End (page 2 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.
Google map (this walk started at Christmas Common instead of Watlington Hill, and follow 'Alternative 1' on the map)
The path carried on along a farm track for a few hundred yards. I then left the track at a path junction, going through a kissing-gate on the left and following a path across part of a pasture (there were isolated trees in it, as if it was the parkland around a grand house - having just checked the OS map, Turville Park is on the other side of it). The path then went through a gate into a smaller pasture or paddock (there were both Jacob's Sheep and a horse here). On the other side it went through another gate and crossed a meadow next to the lawn of a house, then followed the drive from the house a few yards to reach a road junction at Turville Heath. I crossed a minor road and went straight on down a lane, soon passing a small parking area on the left. Immediately past this I turned left along a drive through the wooded heath to reach the grand house of Turville Grange (once the home of Lee Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy).
The path continuing towards Turville Heath
The path continuing towards Turville Heath, after I took the path forking left
The path continuing towards Turville Heath
The drive on Turville Heath, heading to a large house called Turville Grange
I went a few yards right and took a footpath that ran through the grounds of Turville Grange, initially between a garden hedge and a wall on my right. Immediately after passing a paddock or enclosure on my left, I went over a stile and turned left through a huge pasture containing a number of young cattle. Where the enclosure on my left ended, I just walked straight on to go over the brow of a hill, when I could then see where the path entered Idlecombe Wood - there was a pleasant view towards Cobstone Mill over to the right. After entering the wood the path soon started to drop more steeply downhill.
The start of the path to Idlecombe Wood (after I turned left just past Turville Grange)
A zoomed in shot towards Cobstone Mill
The path continuing to Idlecombe Wood
Idlecombe Wood
After a while the path turned right, and started to contour along the hillside, still in Idlecombe Wood and with an attractive valley now on my left - this section is one of my favourite paths in the Chilterns, and I'd already walked it three or four times this year The path isn't completely flat, but there is very little rise or fall, and the occasional views out over the valley are very pleasant.
View from after the path turned right to contour through Idlecombe Wood
The contouring path through Idlecombe Wood
The contouring path through Idlecombe Wood
The contouring path through Idlecombe Wood
After just over half a mile I came to a path junction where I went right, now just inside Churchfield Wood. After a few hundred yards the path ended where it joined a bridleway coming in from the left. A few yards further on I turned left onto a footpath (the bridleway continued ahead to Turville Court), still in Churchfield Wood which here was mainly beech and holly. After a short distance a white arrow indicated where the public footpath went right, leaving what looked like a clear path going downhill. The footpath was fairly level for a while, and close to an edge of the wood on my right, but then started to descend. On coming to the bottom edge of the wood, the path went over a stile and continued downhill along the edge of a huge field on my left, to reach Holloway Lane on the edge of Turville.
The path after I turned right, now just in Churchfield Wood
Churchfield Wood, after I turned left (the footpath goes right near the tree on the right)
The path through Churchfield Wood
The path through Churchfield Wood
The path from Churchfield Wood to Holloway Lane