Pete's Walks - Cowleaze Wood, Stokenchurch, Shirburn Hill (page 2 of 5)
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.
Over a stile in the valley bottom the path forked (half-left and half-right), both options immediately crossing a drive and then heading uphill through an unnamed wood (I'm sure it's actually got a name, it's just not shown on neither the OS map nor on Google maps). I went half-right here, the path through the wood being rather faint in places but always discernible. Near the top of the slope I came to a sign saying the path ahead was temporarily closed for safety reasons, because of building work being done at Wallace Hill Farm just ahead of me. This had been the case when I did this walk in 200, I had been hoping that today I'd have been able to use the actual footpath (which would have been new to me). A temporary permissive path had been provided, going left through the wood for a few hundred yards. On reaching an apparent fork in the path, I went half right to a new wooden gate at the edge of the wood, I continued slightly right, between the edge of the construction area and a field on my left. On reaching the far side of the field I turned left. now on the western edge of Stokenchurch, and followed a path alongside the field for several hundred yards to a path T-junction. Here I turned left, and followed a broad path (still with the maize field to my left) that took me back to the same wood I'd been in a few minutes earlier.
Note: with hindsight, the gate on the edge of the wood is actually part of the (closed) footpath going left (north) from Wallace Hill Farm (which I had wanted to use). I should have taken the left-fork in the wood, which quickly merged with a path coming from the gate. It would have shortly turned right to cross the field (further north than the path I took did), and on the other side of the field I would have had to only go a short way left to reach the T-junction. This would have reduced the length of the route from about 8.7 to about 8.4 miles. However, I didn't spot the end of that footpath as I walked along the far side of the field, though I did see a sign for it.
The start of the path up through the wood on the other side of the valley
The path up through the wood on the other side of the valley
The path up through the wood on the other side of the valley
The temporary permissive path
What I thought was still the temporary permissive path (but see my note above)
The path along the edge of Stokenchurch, after I turned left
The path after I turned left again, at a path T-junction
On entering the wood I immediately forked right (the other path was the one that had forked left where I'd forked right in a valley bottom earlier). Straight away the path left the wood, going over a stile and crossing an empty sheep pasture, then turning left along its far side. This was a delightful path, with a really nice view to the left over the end of a valley, with more sloping fields topped by woods. After a while the path went over a stile and gently descended through North Remlets Wood. It followed a wooded valley bottom for a while before turning left and rising fairly easily through more woods (the OS map shows Langleygreen Plantation to the left, Hailey Wood to the right).
The path continuing along the far side of the empty sheep pasture
The path continuing along the far side of the empty sheep pasture
View from the empty sheep pasture
The path continuing through North Remlets Wood
The path continuing through North Remlets Wood
The path continuing through North Remlets Wood
The path continuing uphill through the woods (Langleygreen Plantation to the left, Hailey Wood to the right)
The path continuing uphill through the woods
The path continuing uphill through the woods