Pete's Walks - Whiteleaf Hill and Loosley Row (page 1 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.
Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk
I did this walk of about 7 miles on Tuesday, 17th September, 2024. It was a route that I first walked in March 2012 (on that occasion after finishing the walk I continued with a 6-mile walk from Whiteleaf Hill to Little Hampden and back so that in all I walked 13 miles), and have repeated a couple of times since.
It was about 10am as I set off from the car park on Whiteleaf Hill (grid reference SP 823036), taking the path out of the end of the car park and turning right along a bridleway that is part of the Ridgeway national trail. I soon spotted some lumps and hollows to the right of the bridleway, which were the remains of practice trenches from the First World War. A few yards further on I turned right onto another bridleway. This passed through an area of small trees and bushes and then ran for several hundred yards just inside a beech wood that sloped down to my left, with a field a few feet to my right. The map is marked 'The Hangings' to the left of this bridleway, but I'm not sure if that is the name of the wood or the valley. The path seemed to split in two a couple of times, only for the two paths to come back together again close to the field - I chose the right-hand variation each time, as I knew I eventually needed to keep right at a genuine fork where a footpath splits off from the bridleway. When I did reach the actual fork, I found that it was lucky that I did want to take the right fork, as the left fork was temporarily closed due to forestry work.
First World War practice trenches, beside the Ridgeway on Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway going east from Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway going east from Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway going east from Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway going east from Whiteleaf Hill (luckily I was taking the right fork here)
When I eventually reached a corner of the field to my right, I turned right at a path crossroads (I always think of this next section of the route as the 'right, left, right, left, right, left' bit), and followed a bridleway just inside the edge of Sergeant's Wood. At the corner of the wood, I turned left along a bridleway on the southern edge of the same wood. I next turned right again, just after the end of the field on my right, and followed a path through the edge of Kingsfield Wood. I then reached a minor road, via a garden and drive, where I turned left.
The bridleway along the western edge of Sergeant's Wood
The bridleway along the southern edge of Sergeant's Wood
The path along the north-western edge of Kingsfield Wood
After maybe a quarter of a mile I took a bridleway on the right, where Hillock Wood started on that side. The bridleway followed the edge of a field on my right, then turned left to head south through Hillock Wood, with the steep Chiltern escarpment dropping away to my right. The bridleway ended in the hamlet of Parslow's Hillock, where I followed a drive a few yards left to a road. I went a short distance right along the road, then turned left down Lily Bottom Lane.
The short road section, Kingsfield Wood on the left
Bridleway on the north-western edge of Hillock Wood, after I turned right from the road
The bridleway through Hillock Wood to Parslow's Hillock
The bridleway through Hillock Wood to Parslow's Hillock