Pete's Walks - Hambleden, Marlow Common, Moorend Common (page 1 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.
NOTE: You now have to pay to use the car park in Hambleden. I usually manage to park along the village street to the west of the church (looking at the church from the village centre, take the street on the left and follow it round to the right).
I did this circular walk of about 10 miles on Saturday, 23rd June 2018. It was a repeat of a walk I did in June 2017. I chose this walk today as I wanted to visit Homefield Wood and Moorend Common to look for Orchids.
I parked in the car park at Hambleden (grid reference SU 785866), and started walking at roughly 10:35am. From the end of the car park I turned left along the edge of a playing field, turning right for a few yards when I reached a hedge, then going through a gap in the hedge and continuing along a track for a few yards. I then turned left, onto a path that climbed steadily uphill beside a field on my right. Towards the top of the slope the path continued through a wood. Where another field appeared on the right, I went through a metal kissing-gate, the path continuing beside the wood for a while before carrying on along a track between fields.
The path across the sports ground at Hambleden (I headed for a gap in the hedge by the two seats)
The start of the path from Hambleden to Rotten Row
The path from Hambleden to Rotten Row, heading uphill to the wood
A view back right across the Thames Valley near Hambleden
The path from Hambleden to Rotten Row, continuing uphill through the wood
The path from Hambleden to Rotten Row, continuing from the wood
The path from Hambleden to Rotten Row, approaching the lane to Rotten Row
At the end of the track I turned left along a lane, following it the short distance to the hamlet of Rotten Row. Where the lane turned left, I took a path going straight on across a recently mown meadow. The path then carried on across a huge pasture to reach another lane, which ran along the edge of Heath Wood. Here I turned right and followed the lane for about a quarter of a mile before taking the SECOND footpath on the left (the first path is part of the Chiltern Way and is the way I normally go here). The path I took started to the left of a short drive, entering what was now Homefield Wood. After staying close to a property on the right, it turned right and then left, dropping down through the wood to a valley bottom where I turned right onto a path along a broad track. Here I soon saw a lot of Dark Mullein growing, then spotted my first Silver-washed Fritillaries of 2018 (they wouldn't stop to have their photo taken, unfortunately). Further on a Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly was more co-operative and posed nicely for its photograph, and then I spotted some Nettle-leaved Bellflower.
The lane through Rotten Row
The path from Rotten Row to Heath Wood
The path from Rotten Row to Heath Wood
The lane along the edge of Heath Wood
The path descending into Homefield Wood
The path descending into Homefield Wood
The path along the valley bottom in Homefield Wood
The path along the valley bottom in Homefield Wood
