Pete's Walks- Cowleaze Wood, Chinnor, Ibstone (page 7 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.
The Ridgeway then continued on past the bottom of Shirburn Hill on my right. Beyond that it continued as a very broad grassy track between hedgerows. After a few hundred yards I turned right, through a kissing-gate, and crossed a small empty pasture to reach a wood named Old Cricketground Plantation.
The Ridgeway (at this point it is passing the foot of Shirburn Hill, on the right)
The Ridgeway (at this point it is passing the foot of Shirburn Hill, on the right)
The Ridgeway
The Ridgeway
The path after I turned right from the Ridgeway, heading to Old Cricketground Plantation
Old Cricketground Plantation
Old Cricketground Plantation
On the other side of the wood, I turned left and followed the edge of the wood, with a large sheep pasture on my right. The path continued rising almost imperceptibly along the southern flank of Bald Hill, with Shirburn Hill across the valley on my right. The path then turned right, across the head of the valley, and then turned half-left and finally steepened for a while as it rose uphill between trees. It then continued uphill as it followed the right edge of a sheep pasture (another part of the Aston Rowant nature reserve), to reach a gate and a road. I then just had to cross the road and take a path heading left through trees, parallel to the road, to return to the Cowleaze Wood car park.
The path continuing along the bottom of Bald Hill
The path continuing along the bottom of Bald Hill (the steeper part of the path is in the trees on the right)
The path continuing along the bottom of Bald Hill
The path continuing along the bottom of Bald Hill
Looking back, from where the path crosses the head of the valley between Bald Hill and Shirburn Hill
The path now climbing up to Cowleaze Wood
Approaching the road and Cowleaze Wood
It had been a very good walk - I wanted to do a slightly longer and more challenging walk than usual and this fitted the bill perfectly. There were long flat stretches at the start and finish of the walk (before the final 'sting in the tail' of the climb back up to Cowleaze Wood), but the rest of the walk was very up and down and gave my rapidly aging body a decent workout. There were many fine views, even along the flat stretches on the Ridgeway, and a good mix of woods, chalk downland and fields. It's certainly a walk I'd be very happy to do again.