Pete's Walks- Watlington Hill, Russell's Water, Swyncombe (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.
A little further on the track had tall hedges either side, obscuring any views (they were already partially obscured by the rain!). Eventually I reached a path crossroads by Lys Farm House. Immediately past this, I took a permissive path on the right, running the other side of the hedge from what was now a surfaced drive. The path followed the hedge beside a large field on my right, with a rain-spoiled view ahead to Watlington Hill.
The bridleway going northeast from Swyncombe Downs towards Lys Farm House
The Ridgeway, approaching Lys Farm House
The permissive path next to the drive from Lys Farm House, with Watlington Hill almost obscured by the rain.
I then turned right along a road heading south from Watlington, but after less than a quarter of a mile I turned left onto a path along a drive (there is a gate across the entrance to the drive, with a pedestrian gate next to it). After a few yards I went left again, leaving the drive and following a path between hedgerows for some distance (it goes through two gates a few yards apart at one point) to reach the foot of Watlington Hill. I went through another gate (I turned left here when I walked this route in this direction in 2016) then a few yards further on took a faint path forking right (this is the least interesting path up Watlington Hill as it is entirely under trees, but for that reason made a good choice in the rain). I did exactly the same thing at the end of a walk I did in February this year, and again the path seemed surprisingly long as it followed a line of Yew trees with fields just a few yards to my right. For much of the way it hardly seemed to be uphill at all, but eventually steepened slightly and I was glad to reach the top, back at the car park where I'd started.
The short bit of road I had to walk below Watlington Hill
The start of the path to Watlington Hill, after I turned left from the drive
The path to Watlington Hill
The start of the path after I forked right near the foot of Watlington Hill
The path continuing up Watlington Hill
The path continuing up Watlington Hill
The path continuing up Watlington Hill
The path continuing up Watlington Hill
The path continuing up Watlington Hill
The path continuing up Watlington Hill
It was a shame about the rain during the last couple of miles or so, but it wasn't too heavy and my waterproofs did their job. As I've mentioned when I've walked it before, this isn't the best of the many walks I do from Watlington Hill, but It's not bad at all and I'd certainly be very happy to walk it again some time. When I originally planned this walk, it was simply to link up four or fives paths that I'd not walked before. Two or three of the 'new' paths turned out to be not that interesting, but if I used some of the other paths I'm more familiar with instead, this route would become too similar to other walks I do from Watlington Hill. I think the slight variation I did today, with a far better path over Swyncombe Downs, was a reasonable compromise (at least for today, as I hadn't walked that path for some time).