A hard walk out of Henley - Stonor, Pishill and back

Date: Saturday 28th January
Route: Henley to Stonor and Pishill and back
Distance: 13.7 miles

Last weekend, we did a long flat walk and a short hilly one. This weekend, our walk was both long and hilly - and exhausting - but still one of the best walks we have done for a while and well worth a try if you don't mind 5 hours of walking in the beautiful countryside near Henley.

Whilst the walk starts and ends in Henley, it doesn't take long to get out of town and into the countryside, following the Oxfordshire Way into the Chiltern Hills, rising quickly onto the hillsides, then descending into the village of Middle Assendon, home of the Rainbow Inn. As the full version of the walk is nearly 14 miles long (one of the longest in the Time Out Book of Country Walks, Volume 2), it is possible to turn off here, following the signs to Bix Bottom, for a shorter (8.8 mile) version, which we have walked a few times, and which includes a lot of quiet country roads (see summary here).

Mindful of the fact that we will have to face a very hilly 14 miles on the last leg of the West Highland Way, we ignored the turning off and carried on along the road, and very quickly uphill, to a fantastic path along a ridge at the top of the valley, with the road far below us and fantastic views of the rolling Chiltern Hills away to the left. This path leads eventually into the village of Stonor, complete with deer park, and on further still to the village of Pishill, where The Crown is a great lunch stop, complete with roaring fire and friendly staff.

The return journey starts off with a climb, but quickly rejoins the Oxfordshire Way and becomes an easy path through pheasant- and partridge-filled woodland, emerging through fields at the ruined church of St James, mentioned in the Domesday Book but abandoned in the 1870's, then heading through a farmyard, uphill and back into more woods, eventually emerging at a golf course, the razor-wired fence of George Harrison's old house and gently downhill into Henley.

This is a fantastic walk - though the distance and the amount of hills means that it won't necessarily appeal to everyone. The views from the ridge do really justify the effort and you can enjoy the peace and quiet of very quiet paths, with red kites wheeling overhead.