Pete's Walks - Christmas Common, Russell's Water, Nuffield (page 6 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.
On reaching Cookley Green I immediately turned left along Coates Lane, hurrying along it to reach a wood, where I took advantage of some shelter to put on my waterproof overtrousers. I also put on the rain cover built-in to my rucksack for the first time (I've had the rucksack 2-3 years, I only found the rain cover after I'd had it a year or so!) - this was very frustrating, not the very simple job it was on my previous rucksack (I had a look at it the next day, in the comfort of my home, and now see it's a straightforward job, there's just a toggle I need to pull to tighten it around the rucksack). I then carried on along Coates Lane, which soon after leaving the wood passed Coates Farm. The lane became better surfaced after that, soon turning left and then right, before running alongside a wood on the left before reaching a lane. I crossed over, and followed a bridleway along the drive to Woods Farm.
Coates Lane
Coates Lane approaching Coates Farm
Coates Lane
The drive to Woods Farm
After a hundred yards or so, the bridleway forked right from the farm drive to head northwest towards Dame Alice Farm. For almost half a mile it gradually descended through a wood, then continued between overhanging hedges either side. Shortly before I would have reached Dame Alice Farm, I turned right onto a footpath (at the only path junction along the bridleway), this path running generally between hedges for almost half a mile to reach Howe Road near a property named Dumble Dore, where I turned left.
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The start of the path to Dumble Dore
The path to Dumble Dore
The path to Dumble Dore
Howe Road
I followed the road for about a quarter of a mile - the rain, which had eased off, now started to come down more heavily again. I then took a path on the right, starting along a drive, but very soon turned left from it along a path that ran between hedges for a few hundred yards (going through two gates in quick succession at one point). On reaching a wooden gate, I paused to decide what to do - my planned route turned left at a path junction immediately after this gate, but that path would give me very little shelter from what was now quite heavy rain. Instead, after a little thought, I decided to go straight on at the junction, but then forked right a few yards further on (there was no sign or waymark but the fork was fairly obvious). This path, which I'd only used two or three times before as it is by far the least scenic route up or down Watlington Hill, was soon running under the shelter of a long line of Yew trees, just feet from a field to my right. It seemed to go a long way with very little gain in height, but eventually steepened a little. The trees did shelter me pretty well from the worst of the rain, and I didn't regret the change of route (I wouldn't have got the usual great views if I'd gone the way I'd planned, and it would have been too wet to get any photos without risking damage to my camera). At the top of the hill I passed the Watlington Hill car park on my left, and then I reached a road, where I turned right. I came to a T-junction after about a quarter of a mile, where I turned right into Christmas Common. After about a hundred yards or so, I went left at a fork to where my car was parked.
The path to Watlington Hill
The path up Watlington Hill
The path up Watlington Hill
The path up Watlington Hill
The path up Watlington Hill
The road from Watlington Hill to Christmas Common
The road into Christmas Common (I went left at the fork to where the cars are parked)
It was a real shame about the rain at the end of this walk (it arrived a few hours before the forecasters had said it would), but otherwise this was a very good walk. I'd been looking forward to doing it again for a few weeks, and I wasn't disappointed, it was a very pleasant and quite varied route. Considering how wet the roads were when I set off, I was very lucky indeed that the paths and bridleways weren't too muddy at all, apart from that section by Church Wood on the way to Cookley Green.