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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday, 11 September 2022

Sunday Walk - Hill top villages in the rolling landscape of the north westerly Aylesbury Vale: Haddenham Circular

Length: 27.8 km (17.3 mi) or 20.2 km (12.6 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 429m or 273m 
Net Walking Time: ca. 6 ¼ or 4 ½ hours
Toughness: 7 out of 10 or 4 out of 10  

Take the 09.30 Banbury train from Marylebone (High Wycombe 09.57), arriving Haddenham & Thame Parkway at 10.11. 
Return trains: xx.14, xx.34, xx.42.
 
This is a very rewarding walk through the pleasant rolling countryside of the north westerly parts of Aylesbury Vale, just north of The Chilterns, with some far views on clear days. 
The walk first crosses the Thame Valley north of Haddenham and then passes through the area of the ancient Bernwood Royal Hunting Forest on a wide circular route to return south on a different route back through the Thame Valley to Haddenham.
The lunch stop is in any one of two charming pubs in the ancient hilltop village of Brill. A short loop around the village, providing far views into five counties, passes its well-preserved windmill in a prominent position on Brill Common, before a long descent from this steep-sided village follows. 
There are a few ascents throughout the walk at regular intervals, with the third one – up to lunch in Brill – the longest, as the walk links a total of four hilltop villages and crosses one other hill chain. 
It also contains several arable field crossings, which should be fine this time of year and after a long dry period.
A shortcut reducing the effort to 4 out of 10 is described.
 
Lunch: The Pointer (12.1 km/7.5 mi, food all day) or The Pheasant (12.9 km/8.0 mi, food all day) in Brill. 
On the short walk: The Hundred of Ashendon (12.9 km/8.0 mi, food all day) in Ashendon. 
Tea: The Hundred of Ashendon (in Ashendon, food to 15.30), The Rising Sun (900m before the station). 
 
For walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.191

1 comment:

Thomas G said...

Another walk with three stops: an hour and a half for lunch at The Pheasant, on the terrace, a generous half hour at the wonderful The Hundred of Ashendon for 'tea', also outside, and a half hour at The Rising Sun for 'Farewell to Haddenham' drinks.
A group of n=5 on this walk with low cloud initially, quickly breaking to sunny, then sunny with some clouds late afternoon, in very fine temperatures, ie w=mostly-sunny
We saw kites and sheep as you would expect, but also donkeys and alpacas together in one field, which we certainly didn't expect.
There were also plenty of fields with cattle, cows, cows with calves or young bulls, incl. at the notorious Wombwell Farm, but all were extremely docile, incl. the bulls. No aggressive dog darted out of the also notorious Stud Farm. The grassy verges were all freshly mown, the hedges mostly cut back for autumn, arable fields were harvested (apart from corn), most also ploughed but the soil had absorbed all the rain of the last weeks and walking was quite easy. A little bit unpleasant proved a couple of fields with multi-year growth and only a narrow path through them. A very minor grumble that...
Group cohesion: 10/10.
19.34 train after all that.