Pete's Walks - Cowleaze Wood, Aston Rowant, Stokenchurch (page 3 of 3)
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 few yards the other side of the stile I came to a path junction, where I turned sharply right onto a path I'd not walked before (the similar route I walked in the opposite direction in July came in on the left here). This path dropped downhill through a wood (I don't know its name, it is not shown on the OS map), gently at first but then more steeply.
The path (which was new to me) descending through the unnamed Wood
The path descending through the unnamed Wood
The path descending through the unnamed Wood
At the bottom of the valley I crossed a drive and went over a stile into a sheep pasture. The path went straight uphill to a protruding corner of a wood, Langleygreen Plantation, then followed the edge of the wood (on my right) to a stile. One entering the wood, the path continued uphill a short way, then levelled out and came to a path crossing. Here I went straight on over the crossing bridleway (the one I'd been on earlier in Hailey Wood), dropping downhill through more of Langleygreen Plantation to reach a stile on the edge of the wood. The path dropped further downhill across a paddock, then went through a tall gate and skirted round to the left of the gardens of Lower Vicar's Farm to reach one of the drives on the Wormsley Estate.
The path rising up the opposite side of the valley, to Langleygreen Plantation
Langleygreen Plantation
Langleygreen Plantation
Crossing the bridleway (the one I'd been on in Hailey Wood) in Langleygreen Plantation
The path descending through Langleygreen Plantation
The path crossing the paddock at Upper Vicar's Farm
I went a short way to the left along the drive, then took a footpath on the right. It was then a steady slog uphill through a sheep pasture and then a field of maize to return to Cowleaze Wood. I followed the path straight on through the wood for about half a mile to return to the car park where I'd started.
The path back uphill to Cowleaze Wood
Approaching Cowleaze Wood
View back from near Cowleaze Wood
Cowleaze Wood
Cowleaze Wood
Cowleaze Wood
Cowleaze Wood, approaching the car park
The sun finally put in an appearance just as I was getting back to Cowleaze Wood, and I had glorious sunshine for my hour-long drive home. This was a bit frustrating after it had been foggy or misty for almost all of the walk - still, it's November, it's entitled to be like that! I still enjoyed the walk, particularly as much of it I'd only walked in the opposite direction before. It was a very up and down route, with four hills to descend and ascend. It took me two hours and forty minutes to cover the 5.4 miles, which is very slow. Sadly my knees are starting to hurt even on gentle downhills, which slowed me down a lot today.