Pete's Walks- Pitstone Hill, Cow Roast, Aldbury (page 2 of 4)
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.
I followed the road until it reached the Grand Union Canal, where I went down some steps on the right and turned left to follow the canal under the road. I then followed the canal towpath for about a mile and a half until it reached a marina and a lock at Cow Roast. I needed to clamber over a fallen tree that blocked the towpath at one point. I also passed a narrowboat that had come loose from one of its moorings and had swung out so that it almost blocked the canal - I was going to call in at the marina and mention it there, but I met a nice gentleman moored further along the canal who said he'd go and sort it out.
The Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal, approaching the lock at Cow Roast
At the lock I left the canal, turning left and following a lane, which immediately turned right to run parallel to the canal. After a couple of hundred yards or so I took a footpath on the left, which crossed a field and then went over a footbridge across a railway line (the main west-coast line). The path continued across another field, then turned right at a path T- junction, following the fence of some paddocks on my left. I soon reached another path T-junction, where I went left. This path brought me to the drive to Norcott Court Farm, which I followed left for a few yards before taking a path on the right along the edge of the farmyard.
The lane from Cow Roast
The path from Cow Roast to Norcott Court Farm
The path from Cow Roast to Norcott Court Farm
The path from Cow Roast to Norcott Court Farm
The path from Cow Roast to Norcott Court Farm
The path then went half-left across a grassy field, sloping slightly uphill on my right. In the corner of this field I went through a gate, then followed the edge of another field until the field boundary turned left for a few yards - here I went right, over a stile, and then half left across another sloping grassy field. In the corner I went through a gate (or over a stile, I can't quite remember) into a sheep pasture and followed the edge of a wood on my right for a few yards until I reached a path junction in the grass. Here I went half-right and dropped downhill to reach a pedestrian gate next to a farm gate, then continued along a drive (a dog obedience class was in progress over the hedge on my left) to reach a lane (coming from Aldbury, some way to my right).
The footpath from Norcott Court Farm
View left from the footpath from Norcott Court Farm
The footpath from Norcott Court Farm
The footpath from Norcott Court Farm - you can see it goes half-left across this sheep pasture to a gate (just left of centre) and continues along a drive to reach a lane.
I then turned right along the lane for a hundred yards or so, before turning left along a grey track (made of the same material as some horse gallops around the fields I was about to walk through). Beyond a small barn (where I crossed one such gallop), the path continued as a more usual farm track. The track turned right for a few yards, then left as it followed a hedgerow. In the next corner the path turned right and continued for several hundred yards until it reached a path junction at the field corner, by a bend in a minor road.
The next footpath, on the other side of the lane (Aldbury Nowers is in the distance on the right)
Further along the same path
Further along the same path
The same path, after it turns right (a second time)