Below you will find descriptions for a variety of English walks (around 21 of them) which might be of interest if you are on holiday in England or visiting our local area - there are many photographs from around the Chilterns on our pages which might be of interest and wish to go sightseeing (even if you are not a walker).
These walks generally work out around 8 to 12 miles - although there are a couple of heavys described too - and are mostly circular and often incorporate hiking along parts of several National Trails. These include hiking on The Ridgeway, The Oxfordshire Way, The Icknield Way and The South Bucks Way as well as parts of the eternally wandering Grim's Ditch and of course the River Thames and it's 185 miles of Thames Path. There also walks a little further north from where we live - around Market Harborough and Welford which may be of interest too.
The walks visit amongst other places Blenheim Great Park, Woodstock, Thame, Goring, Henley, Islip and Rycote
Chapel and some are on The Grand Union Canal and also several which use the The Oxford Canal. By definition
of course these long National Trails go somewhere so walking their whole distance involves two sets of
transport or alternatively walking circulars and accumulating parts of the routes over a period of time -
unless you plan on camping along their routes. We have in fact organised our various walks so that you can
cover quite reasonable parts of the various trails simply by following the circular walks descriptions.
Walking Gear. Everyone has their preference for what to have on their feet when out rambling but certainly some of these
walks really do require walking boots or at least wellies rather than simply trainers. For instance the
Oxfordshire Way Trail is quite often really wet in places - it just seems to
have a remarkable ability in finding underground
springs on it's route - so sometimes you can be walking through deep slippery mud patches.
Also we usually take a walking pole with us
particularly when we expect to be walking across fields where they may be cows
and sometimes even bulls grazing. In England public footpaths are not meant to
be blocked or obstructed or create any sort of hazard to walkers however young
cattle have a habit of running towards you. This is just because they are
inquisitive however 20 or 30 calves racing towards you is a bit of a hazard in
that (we know) sometimes they barely stop in time - what they do respect and
will pay attention too is a stick being waved at them.
It is also of note how quickly the weather can change especially in the winter - we have set out on The
Ridgeway in reasonably warm conditions, then ended up being snowed on a few hours later so again taking a bit of
appropriate gear is worth while - that ridge is quite isolated in places.
The instructions for the walks are for guidance although we believe them to be accurate however of course a good
Ordnance Survey Explorer map should be carried/utilised as well. We have taken quite a few GPS readings on the
way round some of these walks because it's great fun to load a map into the computer and plan a route, load
it into the GPS, then when the walk is finished load the actual tracking back into the PC and see the results on the map.
| Books about our English Canals:- Anatomy of Canals Nicholson Guide to the Waterways British Canals: The Standard History Books about wildlife and nature in England: Wild Flowers (Pocket Nature) RSPB Pocket Birds |
Books about walking and hiking in England: The Thames Path (National Trail Guides) Circular Walks Chiltern Way Bucks+Oxfordshire The Ridgeway (National Trail Guides) Chilterns and Thames Valley: Walks |
GPS is setup on British Grid and to OSGB rather than Latitude/Longitude since our U.K. maps are designed and
most easily followed using this setting. Quite apart from the lovely countryside around the area when walking it
is always worth slight diversions to look at the churches in the various villages, some of which are very old.
In addition at the appropriate time of year we have the "pre-Spring warning" of snowdrop displays
followed by the massive displays of bluebells doing their thing in the woods - for example up at Christmas Common;
then there are the fantastic autumn leaf displays for which Wendover Woods is justifiably famous.
As far as wildlife is concerned our area is full of all sorts to enjoy - particularly we have a thriving
population of Red Kites - for instance around Thame it is very unlikely that you will fail to see at least 5 or 6
and quite often many more of these wonderful birds flying around often at tree height. Other locations to spot
these kites is around Christmas Common and up at Stokenchurch and if you are happy to go walking then another
good place to spot Red Kites is around Stonor Deer Park where in addition you often see hawks and buzzards as
well as owls, woodpeckers and many other bird species.
Incidentally two good resources to look at for holiday accommodation if you are thinking of coming on holiday to the area covered by most of our walks are the Let’s Stay Chilterns and Let’s Stay Cotswolds websites.
The Complete list of English Walks described on our Sites (each link below will open a new page containing the walk)
| Oxfordshire Way | The Ridgeway | Other Walks |
| Pick a walk below (circular unless shown otherwise) | Miles | Brief description of the walk | |
| Wantage to Wantage via Letcombe Castle fort | 10 | Couple of steepish climbs, else undulating | |
| Wormsley Estate | 9 | Several steep climbs, track and path | |
| Marsworth Lock-Ivinghoe Beacon-Tring-MarsworthL | 12 | Fairly flat but bumpy in the middle. | |
| Whiteleaf Hill - Pulpit Hill Fort - Chequers | 5 | Track+woods, several steep climbs | |
| Goring - Moulsford - Goring | 15 | Several climbs at the start then undulates | |
| Wendover Woods-Boddington Hill Fort | 11 | Bumpy - Ridgeway, Hill Fort, Canal | |
| Halton-Wendover Woods-Tring Park-Pavis Wood | 10 | Bumpy - woods paths+tracks. Ridgeway | |
| Halton-Grand Union-Wendover Woods | 9 | Flat to start but 2 climbs later. | |
| Halton - Boddington Hill Fort - Halton | 7 | Circuit via Wendover woods. 2 climbs. | |
| Lower Heyford - Aston's - Lower Heyford | Oxford Canal Circular | ||
| Oxford to Lower Heyford | 14 | Start of the Oxford Canal to Lower Heyford - one way | |
| Lower Heyford - Tackley - Lower Heyford | Another Oxford Canal Circular Walk | ||
| Somerton - Aynho - Somerton | Circular using The Oxford Canal | ||
| 3Locks-Old Linslade-GreenSand Ridge-3L | 11 | Grand Union Canal - woods - undulating | |
| Clifton Hampden-Wittenham Clumps-Clifton H. | 14 | via Dorchester - The Thames - mostly flat | |
| Stonesfield-Woodstock-Blenheim-Stonesfield. | 17 | Undulates - Oxfordshire Way - Blenheim | |
| Stonor to Stonor via Henley-The Thames | 11 | Some steep climbs, undulating, river section | |
| Beckley - Thame ONE WAY | 15 | Fairly flat - The Oxfordshire Way | |
| Stonor to Stonor (Assendon Ridge) | 8 | Track and woods - quite bumpy! | |
| Charlbury - Charlbury via Wychwood Forest | 9 | Track and forest, mostly easy walking | |
| Thame - Shabbington+Rycote Chapel | 9 | Flat, meadows, Thame river, woodland | |
| Culham Lock-Abingdon-Sutton Courtenay-Culham | 9 | Mostly flat - Thames Path, tracks | |
| Culham - Clifton Hampden - Abingdon - Culham | 10 | Thames Path, across country then Thames Path via Abingdon | |
| Islip - Kidlington - Oxford Canal - Islip | 16 | Undulates - Oxfordshire Way | |
| Ibstone - Bluebells | 8.5 | Circular walk in England with millions of bluebells | |
| Bluebell Walk - Cowlease Woods | 5 | A walk enjoying England's Bluebells | |
| Napton - Claydon - Cropedy - Oxford Canal | - | Napton, Marston Doles, Fenny Compton, Claydon, Cropedy and Banbury | |
| Braunston and area Walks | 5 | Covering Shuckburghs, Braunston, Brinklow, Ansty, Hawkesbury and Norton Junctions | |
| Foxton - Market Harborough circular | 11 | Foxton Locks along the Market Harborough Canal into that town and back via Lubenham. | |
| Welford Circular (Northants) | 10 | Welford using the Jurassic Way to the Leicester Canal and on round back via canals. |
| Go to the Top of this Page Site Resources Contact Us |
Our Home Page has Travel and Holiday Guides, Walks and Photos for Cyprus and for The Algarve. Our Topics on England contain photo pages and topics concerning English Churches, English Wildflowers and Toadstools. Having recently walked the Oxford Canal we have at least one photo of every canal lock and canal bridge on this beautiful English Canal. We have also walked the length of the Grand Union Canal from Birmingham to London and there are photos of all this canal's locks and bridges. Various Canal Arms leave the Grand Union Canal and we have several topics on several of these including the excellent Wendover Arm and the equally nice Market Harborough Arm.
Our Far East website contains holiday guides about Hong Kong, Bali, Bintan, a Gili Isle and Singapore plus photos from Thailand. On our Islands site we have Holiday Guides for the Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and the Greek Islands of Lesbos, Symi, Skiathos, Lefkada, Thassos, Crete, Samos, Naxos, Skopelos, Alonissos, Andros, Patmos, Mykonos, Corfu, Sikinos, Kos, Lipsi, Rhodes, Santorini, Paros and Paxos. Please visit our New Zealand website for many topics and photos about holidays in that beautiful country, our India Holiday Guides concerning Goa and a little about Karnataka and finally take a look at our Egypt site for lots of photos from Luxor and it's ancient sites and also information about holidays in Sharm el Sheikh.
Good External "Walking Related" Web Resources
www.chilternsaonb.org
Chiltern Experience
Risborough Area Community Action (RACA) - Chiltern Experience website
Walking Routes
100's of links to UK web pages which detail 1000's of on-line
walking routes, hiking trails, route directions, route maps etc
Southern Walks Many walks on this site covering the South of England including walks
using the Test Way, New Forest, South Downs Way and so on.
Bestwalks - the most comprehensive resource on the web for books on walking the Chilterns
and the whole of the UK
Goring Gap Health Walks Their goal is to provide useful information about their Health Walking group and the area in which they walk.
Abingdon Walks Walk and Historical Walk Ideas - Abingdon Town, River, Country and Boar's Hill Walks