Pete's Walks - Cowleaze Wood and Radnage (page 5 of 6)
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.
After one or two hundred yards I went straight on where a path went right, but after another similar distance I took a second path going right. This soon left the wood, following a hedge on my left past an arable field (looking across it I saw some Fallow Deer in the next field, possibly the same ones I'd seen before) and then continuing as a wide track through Hartmoor Wood. The track gradually steepened as it rose up the other side of the valley. On leaving the wood, the path levelled out as it followed the edge of a field to reach Ibstone.
The bridleway along the path, approaching the second junction where a path goes right (the way I went)
The start of the path after I turned right from the bridleway
The path after I turned right from the bridleway
Zoomed-in shot of Fallow Deer in the middle of a field
The path continuing through Hartsmoor Wood
The path continuing through Hartsmoor Wood
The path continuing through Hartsmoor Wood
The path approaching Ibstone
I crossed the road here and followed the edge of the village cricket pitch and sat on one of two benches here to eat my lunch. I then continued to a corner of the pitch and took a path going half-right across Ibstone Common, passing the Millennium Stone in its middle. On reaching the far corner of the grassy part of the common, I entered some trees and turned left onto a bridleway. This initially ran between hedges (I was grateful this bit wasn't too muddy today), then continued through Commonhill Wood. It was soon heading steadily downhill, initially in a narrow chalky groove worn into the hillside. After passing a junction where the Chiltern Way went left, the bridleway turned right, still dropping downhill. On leaving the wood near the bottom of the slope, the bridleway continued on along part of the Wormsley Valley, another bridleway soon merging with it from the left. Soon the bridleway was running between hedges either side.
The path on Ibstone Common, heading to the Millennium Stone
The path on Ibstone Common, passing the Millennium Stone
The bridleway from Ibstone Common down to the Wormsley Valley, just after I joined it
The bridleway from Ibstone Common down to the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway from Ibstone Common down to the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway from Ibstone Common down to the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway from Ibstone Common down to the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway from Ibstone Common down to the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway continuing through the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway continuing through the Wormsley Valley