Dust off your walking boots it’s the Chilterns Walking Festival
Who doesn’t love autumn? The chance to dust off those walking boots and get out into the countryside is even easier with the Chilterns Walking Festival which is taking place from 17th October to 1st November 2020. The programme will include over forty guided countryside walks, activities and events including routes centred around nature reserves, iron age hillforts, farms, churches and filming locations. All led by knowledgeable guides and taking in the beautiful Chilterns landscape.
The Chilterns Walking Festival is part of a month-long Chilterns Celebration running throughout October. This is a brand-new festival of events designed to bring communities together and inspire people to explore and enjoy the heritage and landscape around them.
Bookings are now live via visitchilterns.co.uk
We have picked out some of the festival walks local to Henley.
Walk to the Trenches – Marlow Common
Saturday 17th October – 10.00am
Join us for a bacon butty & cuppa (on the house) in the Teepee at The Royal Oak before venturing out onto the lovely Marlow Common.
Explore the wonderfully preserved WW1 practice trenches and soak up the magic of these beautiful beech woods, then back to the pub for a beer or lunch if you fancy.
Price: FREE
Choice of two short walks or one long one – Nettlebed
Saturday 17th October – 10.00am
Join the Ramblers for a choice of a morning walk or afternoon or both. Morning walk 5 miles, 3 hrs, north of Nettlebed. Picnic on the Green at Nettlebed at 1pm. Afternoon walk starts at 1.30pm from The Kiln as well and is 4 miles.
Price: FREE
Short walk from Peppard
Sunday 18th October – 10.30am
Via Peppard Church, Crosslanes, Greys Green and Rotherfield Greys, a pleasant walk through farmland and woodland on the outskirts of Henley.
Price: FREE
Gone Rustic up the Fairmile – Henley-on-Thames
Monday 19th October – 10.00am
Join us for a ‘Literary Hitchhike’ from the historic riverside market town of Henley-on-Thames. Our route takes us along the Henley Riverside and up the Fair Mile to Lower Assendon where author Cecil Roberts once lived. Following in the footsteps of Charles I and Dick Turpin we make the steady climb up into Henley Park, returning through the Park back to Henley and the river Thames.
Along the way we will discover delightful, and sometimes humorous, insights and curiosities into the area through the writings and accounts of poets, authors and diarists
Price: £8.00
Hambleden Hilly
Wednesday 21st October – 10.00am
This 7 mile walk exploring the Hambleden Valley and surrounding hills is ideal for Nordic walkers but all walkers welcome (no dogs, sorry). It’s a hilly one with two long climbs, steep in places (total ascent 900ft / 275m), but there are plenty of discoveries to distract us along the way! This is England at its best – Chilterns countryside, rolling hills, towering beech woods, a sparkling chalk stream and an idyllic picturesque village with brick and flint cottages and a thriving pub.
Price: £8.00
Ding dong, there’s an elephant on the well – Stoke Row
Friday 23rd October – 10.00am
In days gone by the rural communities in the Chilterns often suffered from severe water shortages. The dry valleys of the Chilterns (known as bottoms) did not provide water and piped water did not reach many communities until the mid-1900s. So how did these communities survive?
This 12 mile circular walk explores the historical importance of water to the hill communities and villages of the Chilterns. Our walk takes us on a well safari over the Chilterns plateau through the villages and hamlets of Peppard, Gallowstree Common, Kidmore End and Highmoor Cross, each with their covered wells, and Stoke Row with the magnificent Maharajah’s Well, complete with golden elephant!
Price: £10.00 for adults £8.00 for children over 14
A short walk from Henley Town centre
Sunday 25th October – 10.30am
To Greys Court via Happy Valley, return through Lambridge Woods, the outward walk is through farmland, the return through a mature woodland.
Price: FREE
The Christmas Common Loop
Wednesday 28th October – 10.00am
This walk will depart from Watlington Hill with its iconic views and then drop down to the charming market town of Watlington. We will return along a different route, taking in some stunning views along the way.
This event is part of the inaugural Watlington Nature Festival.
Price: FREE
The Danesfield House, Gardens and hillfort tour
Wednesday 28th October – 11.00am
Danesfield House Hotel, with its glorious 65 acres of manicured gardens is delighted to open the grounds once more this year with an informative, one-hour tour given by Dan Lawrence, Head Gardener. Discover the numerous unique plantings, the Italian garden and rare c1902 Pulham Stone monuments and the remains of an Iron Age hillfort known as Danesfield Camp.
Price: FREE
The Danesfield House, Gardens and hillfort tour
Wednesday 28th October – 2.00pm
Danesfield House Hotel, with its glorious 65 acres of manicured gardens is delighted to open the grounds once more this year with an informative, one-hour tour given by Dan Lawrence, Head Gardener. Discover the numerous unique plantings, the Italian garden and rare c1902 Pulham Stone monuments and the remains of an Iron Age hillfort known as Danesfield Camp.
Price: FREE
LiDAR and the archeology of Chilterns Woods around Greenfield
Thursday 29th October – 10.00am
In the winter of 2018/19 the Chilterns Conservation Board, with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, flew a high resolution LiDAR survey over the Chilterns in order to detect and map archaeology hidden across the landscape.
On this walk we will use that survey to explore the archaeology along our route, a c. 7 mile circuit taking in woods and grasslands around Greenfield, Watlington Hill, and Christmas Common. Along the way we will see prehistoric field systems, bodgers’ saw pits, old enclosures, sunken ways, quarries, and much more, whilst exploring the beautiful hills and woods of this part of the AONB.
Price: FREE
Thames Path Walk – Henley-on-Thames
Friday 30th October – 9.45am
Starting from the centre of Henley we will follow the historic back streets down to the River. Henley was once a thriving inland port and many of the old buildings are testament to that.
We will walk along a beautiful stretch of the Thames Path National Trail towards Hambleden lock. From there we will meander along quiet lanes back to Henley. The walk will be led by Richard Mayon-White, author of ‘Exploring the Thames Wilderness’.
Price: FREE
Ghostly Tales from the Riverbank – Henley-on-Thames
Sunday 1st November – 10.00am
Do you believe in ghosts? England is a haunted country and along the iconic Henley Reach of the River Thames there are plenty of Ghostly Tales from the Riverbank to be told! So, don’t be frightened… on this Halloween weekend join us for a ghost walk and discover Henley’s infamous murderous woman, the Phantom of Regatta Island, and more.
Our 6 mile route takes us from Henley along the Thames Path National Trail to Hambleden Mill, returning over the hill via Aston.
Donations are welcome for the Bluebells Day Centre; a Henley based charity dedicated to supporting Dementia patients and their families (recommended minimum donation £5 per person)..
Price: FREE – donations on the day welcome
A short walk from Henley returning along the thames
Sunday 1st November – 10.00am
The walk will start from the Mill Lane car park which is about a mile from Henley town centre. From there we will walk to Hunts Farm then Mays Green, skirting Lower Shiplake. We will return along the River Thames.
Price: FREE
