Pete's Walks- Cowleaze Wood, Chinnor, Ibstone (page 5 of 7)
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.
In the field corner I went through a metal kissing-gate and immediately went right at a path junction. The path soon curved left and started to go uphill through the wood - I can't really tell from the map if this was Commonhill Wood or Hartsmoor Wood. I soon spotted a group of Fallow Deer in the trees over to my right (I'd just been thinking that I hadn't seen any on my recent walks). The path continued steadily uphill through the wood - I was struggling a bit now, I'd now been walking almost four hours and this was my sixth or seventh bit of uphill. I eventually made it to the top, where the footpath went through a gate and followed a wicker fence on the left round a garden to reach a road as it entered the village of Ibstone.
The Chiltern Way in Hartsmoor Wood
Fallow Deer in Hartsmoor Wood
The Chiltern Way in Hartsmoor Wood
The Chiltern Way in Hartsmoor Wood, rising uphill to Ibstone
The Chiltern Way in Hartsmoor Wood, approaching Ibstone
The Chiltern Way arriving in Ibstone
I turned left, passing some of the houses of Ibstone on my left with the wooded part of Ibstone Common on my right. I was still following the Chiltern Way, and soon came to a sign indicating where it left the road and took a rather muddy bridleway through the common. I passed three or four ponds in this wooded section of Ibstone Common, then the bridleway turned right (the next few yards were very muddy) and started a gradual descent through Commonhill Wood (presumably the same one I'd been in on the other side of the road) down into the Wormsley Valley. After a while, the bridleway was a very narrow trench cut into the chalk of the wooded hillside.
Where the Chiltern Way goes right from the road through Ibstone
The Chiltern Way passing one of the ponds on Ibstone Common
The Chiltern Way as it leaves Ibstone Common to descend into the Wormsley Valley
The Chiltern Way descending through Commonhill Wood, into the Wormsley Valley
The Chiltern Way descending through Commonhill Wood, into the Wormsley Valley
When I came to a path junction, I stayed on the Chiltern Way as it turned left onto a footpath. This dropped very steeply for a short distance to reach the edge of the wood, beyond which it turned right and followed a fence line the rest of the way down into the Wormsley Valley. Across a track, the path continued across a large green field. I then went over one of the drives on the Wormsley estate, and then went downhill through a meadow to reach a second such drive.
The very steep bit of path after the Chiltern Way turns left at a path junction in Commonhill Wood
Part of the Wormsley valley, from where the Chiltern Way leaves Commonhill Wood - Great Wood is on the left, Hale Wood on the right
The Chiltern Way crossing the Wormsley Valley
The Chiltern Way approaching the second of the estate drives in the Wormsley valley