Pete's Walks- Hambleden, Marlow Common, Moorend Common (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.
The path continued alongside the far side of the hedge. In the corner of the field there were some trees and bushes marking the remains of a chapel, according to the OS map, though there was nothing really visible. After crossing a track, the path continued across a large hay meadow, where the hay had been mown and removed. The path then entered the wooded section of Moorend Common, close to the hamlet of Moor Common, and quickly came to a path junction by a corner of a wall, where I kept left (and soon kept left at another junction). I followed the path south through the common for about half a mile (guided by arrows on trees, and occasional waymarks). Eventually, after crossing a simple plank bridge over a tiny streamlet, the path turned right and entered a more open area of Moorend Common. This was where I was hoping to look for more Orchids, and I wasn't disappointed - there were hundreds of them! They were mainly Southern Marsh Orchids, with some Common Spotted Orchids and a few Heath Spotted Orchids, which was the species I particularly wanted to see. Unfortunately, they weren't quite fully in flower (the top parts of each flower hadn't opened), so I hope to go back in a week's time to take another look and get some better photographs.
The path continuing from Bottom Wood towards Moor Common
The path continuing from Bottom Wood towards Moor Common
The path through Moorend Common (the names here are confusing, there are hamlets named Moor Common and Moor End and between them is Moorend Common!)
The path through Moorend Common
The path through Moorend Common
The path through Moorend Common, approaching the open area where the orchids are
There must have been a few hundred orchids
Heath Spotted Orchid (like all the other orchids here, this one hasn't fully flowered yet).
Southern Marsh Orchid
I reached a road on the other side of the open area, close to the few cottages that make up the hamlet of Moor End. A path continued on the other side of the road, entering a wood and soon joining a track which I followed to the left. I then took the second path on the right, which left the wood and started across part of an L-shaped hay meadow that had just been mown, along with a couple of adjoining ones. As I've often seen before (including earlier on this walk at Rotten Row), a large number of Red Kites were attracted to the freshly mown meadows, there must have been 30-40 of them overhead with at least one or two Buzzards. The path joined a hedge at a corner, continuing straight on with the hedge on my right, to reach a farm yard. Here I turned left, the path soon running along a wide grassy verge next to a lane. After a fairly short distance the path came to an end and I continued along the lane, passing St Katherine's Convent on my right and then going through the hamlet of Parmoor. Two or three hundred yards further on, a path started on the right, initially running next to the drive of a property in the hamlet of Pheasants before going half-left across an attractive flower-strewn meadow to reach another lane.
The path from Moorend Wood
There were lots of Red Kites and one or two Buzzards over these hay meadows that had just been mown
The path from Moorend Wood
The path beside the lane, between Frieth and Parmoor
The lane going through Parmoor
The path through the meadow at Pheasants