Pete's Walks- Watlington Hill and Cookley Green (page 4 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.
On leaving Church Wood at a gate, the path continued downhill across the lovely park land that surrounds Swyncombe House. As I was walking here I saw a large shadow cross the path in front of me, and I looked up to see a Red Kite flying by. Looking to my right, I spotted a Buzzard too. The path left the park through a metal kissing-gate, soon afterwards crossing a drive and continuing through bushes to reach a gate into the churchyard of the 11th-century church of St Botolph at Swyncombe. I followed the path as it went to the church porch and then round to the left of the church. On leaving the church yard, I turned right along a lane or drive. When this ended at a junction with a lane, I crossed over and continued ahead on a footpath.
The path continuing through the park around Swyncombe House
St Botolph's church, Swyncombe
The lane from Swyncombe
The path descended quite steeply beside a hedge on my left - again there were numerous butterflies, mainly Meadow Browns and Marbled Whites. It was then an equally steep rise up the other side of the valley (don't believe the photos, my camera is lying about how steep it was!), where I spotted some Dark Mullein growing. It continued to be uphill as the path entered a wood (at least I was now in the shade, it really was quite hot now), but eventually I reached the top of the slope and soon the path started to descend again. But just a short way down the slope I turned left, to follow a path going west over Swyncombe Downs.
The start of the path to Swyncombe Downs
The path to Swyncombe Downs
The path to Swyncombe Downs
This was the section of the route I'd most been looking forward to. It's a good path to walk at any time because of the views along the Chiltern Escarpment and out over the Oxfordshire Plain, but I enjoy it even more at this time of year because of the butterflies and wildflowers. I soon saw some Common Spotted Orchids and then some Pyramidal Orchids. As I looked at a Scabious of some type, I saw a Dark Green Fritillary land on it, then fly off again. There were more Marbled Whites, and I spotted my first Small Skipper of the year, making 24 species for the year (I'd very much like to see 30 types of butterfly in a year but got stuck on 29 in each of the last couple of years). At first there were bushes to my left, with a strip of grassy downland dropping down to my right. Further on the path ran through trees, all the while following the line of an earthwork called the 'Danish Intrenchment', thought to be a boundary between the Vikings and the Kingdom of Wessex.
Near the start of the path along Swyncombe Downs
The path along Swyncombe Downs, looking ahead over the Oxfordshire Plain
The path along Swyncombe Downs
I then came to a path fork, and realised I'd made a mistake when I planned the route. I'd intended to fork right here, as I don't think I'd ever been down that path (I've come up it the other way at least once, though). But if I did that, I'd have missed the best bit of Swyncombe Downs, an open area of flower-filled grass that stretched ahead of me - I'd wrongly thought the path fork was at the other end of this area (embarrassingly, I've a vague feeling I've made this mistake before!). So for the second time today I varied from the route I'd originally planned and went through a kissing-gate and walked straight on. In fact I soon stopped and sat down on the short turf to eat my packed lunch (I think it was about 1.30pm now) - I had some Small Tortoiseshell butterflies for company, and I was also entertained by a couple of Buzzards, one of which kept climbing in the sky then folding its wings to drop almost vertically. I was also impressed by the striking gold/orange colours of some fields below me.
I then continued on my way, following the path as it dropped down the western end of Swyncombe Downs, soon passing through an area of Yew trees. The path led on to an area of Beech trees and the small car park at the foot of Swyncombe Downs.
The path along Swyncombe Downs
Looking left from Swyncombe Downs - the colour of these fields was quite stunning
The path going down the end of Swyncombe Downs - there were lots of Yew trees here
The path going down the end of Swyncombe Downs