Pete's Walks - Cowleaze Wood and Turville Heath (page 1 of 4)
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.
I did this circular walk of about 11 miles on Saturday, 5th May 2018. It was a repeat of one of my favourite walks in the Chilterns which I hadn't done for several years.
I parked in the large car park at Cowleaze Wood (Grid Reference SU 726956) and started walking about 10.30am. I walked through the car park with the road to my right, taking a short path out of the end of the car park that soon brought me to the road. On the other side of the road two paths start either side of a narrow tree belt, and I took the furthest one. This crossed a huge empty pasture (there are occasionally cows here), aiming just left of the left end of a line of conifers. On the far side of the pasture I went over a stile and followed a short track through a narrow part of Shirburn Wood. The path soon left the wood, and gradually descended the southern side of Shirburn Hill, with a wonderful view ahead over the Oxfordshire Plain. At the bottom of the slope, the path goes through a gate and immediately turns right (a track goes straight on), then after a few yards turns left to follow the bottom edge of Shirburn Wood with fields on the right. This goes on for several hundred yards, the path going right at a field corner before turning left again after another couple of hundred yards. The path then leaves the fields and briefly enters the wood, going slightly left to a gate beyond which a track leads on round the foot of the scrub-covered Pyrton Hill, eventually reaching a surfaced drive, where I turned left.
The start of the path from Cowleaze Wood to Pyrton
The path descending the south side of Shirburn Hill
The path descending the south side of Shirburn Hill
The path continuing past Shirburn Wood
The path continuing past Shirburn Wood
The path continuing past the foot of Pyrton Hill
The path continuing past the foot of Pyrton Hill
The path continuing past the foot of Pyrton Hill (Watlington Hill now directly ahead)
I followed the drive to its end, passing a Timber Yard and 'Cat Hotel' on my right, then continued straight on along a bridleway heading uphill - I usually describe this as going up Pyrton Hill, but it actually goes up the end of the short valley between Pyrton Hill (to my left) and Watlington Hill. I looked for and soon spotted some Fallow Deer on Pyrton Hill, it's one of the most reliable spots I know for seeing them (although they are always a fair distance away). Towards the top of the hill I took a footpath that forked half-right, crossing part of a sheep pasture to a path junction by a kissing-gate in a hedge, where I turned left and followed the hedge (on my right) to reach a minor road on the edge of Christmas Common.
The start of the bridleway from Pyrton
Fallow Deer on Pyrton Hill (this is usually a good place to see them)
Looking left to Pyrton Hill
The bridleway from Pyrton
The path to Christmas Common
The path to Christmas Common
I turned right and followed the road through Christmas Common, going straight on where roads went off to the right and then half-left. Shortly after passing the Fox And Hounds pub on my right, I took a footpath on the left that passed the former church (to my right) and entered Queen Wood. On the far side it turned left down a drive for a few yards to reach Hollandridge Lane, where I turned right. Just after passing the last house on the right, I took a bridleway on the left that dropped gently downhill through a wood called Prior's Grove.
The road through Christmas Common
The path through Queen Wood at Christmas Common
Hollandridge Lane, Christmas Common
Near the start of the bridleway in Prior's Grove