This attractive 6 mile circular walk starts on the common at Upper Maidensgrove about 5 miles North West of Henley. It is a particularly good walk for late January and February as you hopefully can see snowdrops at Swyncombe. At the end of the walk you may be able to enjoy a pint at the 16th century 5 Horseshoes pub
Parking
There is plenty of parking on Maidensgrove Common, park within 15 feet of the road edge at Upper Maidensgrove in sight of the 5 Horseshoes pub. Alternatively, if you are certain to use the pub, there is a car park oppposite.
Map
Walk Description
The photo points are shown on the map above.
From
the car, walk along the road past the pub and take a footpath to the left
shortly afterwards (photo P1).
When you get to the bottom of the hill take a short left and you will see a gate to your right (Photo P3). It is easy to make a mistake and walk up hill, please avoid this by turning right straight after you get through the gate.
The route is straightforward from here until you come into the community of Park Corner and you walk along a metalled lane until you reach the main road and point 1 on the map.
Travel diagonally across the main road and take the metalled lane signposted to Ewelme Park and Swyncombe House (Photo P4).
Continue along this lane and look out for the metalled lane to the left just after a no speed limit sign (Photo P5).
Go down this lane and walk for at least a mile until you get to point 2 on the map.
With a white house in view ahead, look for a crossroads sign and turn right in the direction marked RIDGEWAY with an Acorn symbol (Photo P6).
Walk through a clean farmyard and the path turns right away quite quickly. The path is straightforward with a bend to the left after a few hundred metres although you can be sucked into a path on the right. Don't take this, continue as marked RIDGEWAY (Photo P7).
Continue downhill through a wood and after going through a kissing gate you will come to a lane where you turn right. There is a lovely view to your right (Photo P8)
Continue along the lane RIDGEWAY lane and you will reach Swyncombe church at point 3 on the map where you might be lucky enough to see snowdrops (Photo P9) in late January through February.
The footpath goes to the right of the 11th century church by the sign (Photo P10).
Go past the church, straight across a lane and into a field where you climb up hill. Just before you go through the gate into the wood, look back as it is a fine view looking down the hill (Photo P11).
Continue through a well defined path in the woods and you will join Church lane where you turn right. After a 100m you will reach Cookley Green. Take a footpath across the green to the right of a lane and go to the main road where you reach point 4 on the map.
Cross the main road and down a dirt lane feeding some houses. At the end of the lane the path continues and is well defined. Eventually you will come to a T junction in the path and you need to turn left and climb up and you will soon reach the hamlet of Russell's Water with a green in front of you.
Turn right alongside the green and then turn left so that the green is still on your left. The lane turns to the right feeding houses but eventually becomes a path. Ignore paths to your left and right and continue straight on through some scrub. When you come out of the scrub onto Maidengrove Common, go forward for 10m and a path to the right should be fairly obvious. This curves round and soon your car should come into sight.
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