Inkpen Wild Walk

Inkpen Berkshire Buckinghamshire Wild Walk Oxfordshire

Explore west Berkshire: this walk Inkpen Common Nature Reserve includes ancient heathland, woods and This remnant of Inkpen Great Common, dominated downs and spectacular views by heathers and gorse, contains many plants both Starting in Kintbury, this 17 km circular walk takes in the beautiful, such as pale dog-violet, tormentil, heath Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust’s (BBOWT) Inkpen milkwort and heath spotted-orchid, and unusual Common and Inkpen Crocus Field nature reserves. such as lousewort and the parasitic common dodder.

17 km/10.5 miles (about 4.5–5 hours) Oak and birch fringe the heath, supporting breeding finches and warblers that provide a chorus of birdsong during spring The end of stage 2 and start of stage 4 are very steep and summer. A carpet of rushes and bog mosses in the small There is a shorter 10km/6 mile circular section which starts valley bog is punctuated by yellow blooms of bog asphodel at Inkpen Common nature reserve. There are further paths through the summer. around the reserve to explore further BBOWT’s Kintbury Newt Ponds nature reserve is nearby Fungi, including the attractive but poisonous fly agaric, erupt from the ground each autumn. Periodically trees are cut down How to get to the start to restore open heath, and livestock are used to maintain this Postcode: RG17 9UT Grid ref: SU 387 672 by grazing the young saplings and regrowth. By bus: Check www.traveline.info for information about Inkpen Crocus Field – renowned for its spectacular display local buses of thousands of crocuses blooming each spring. You can By train: The walk starts at Kintbury railway station, check also see many butterflies, such as ringlet, orange-tip and www.nationalrail.co.uk for train times gatekeeper, on this flower-rich meadow later in the year. By car: There is parking in Kintbury, by Wayfarer’s Walk and limited parking on Great Common Road, Inkpen Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) By bike: There is limited cycle storage at Kintbury railway station BBOWT relies on the support of our members to help us look after local wildlife. By joining BBOWT you can help to secure Please help us look after wildlife by keeping dogs on short the future of special landscapes like Inkpen Common and leads at Inkpen Common and picking up after them. Inkpen Crocus Field. Join us today!

Please note no dogs are allowed at Inkpen Crocus Field.

NATURE NOTES

The song In autumn an Buzzards are Brown hares of skylarks array of fungi a common rely on speed is one of emerge from bird of prey for protection the iconic the ground. that can be and escape sounds of the The fly seen all from danger, countryside. Listen out for agaric is the toadstool of year round. They take a instead of bolting down the seemingly endless song fairy tales with its red cap wide selection of prey holes like rabbits. Hares, as it pours down from high covered with white spots. It’s from rabbits, voles, mice distinguished from rabbits above your head. Skylarks poisonous to humans but and shrews to frogs, toads, by black ear tips, lie up in shallow depressions in open are found on grassland and edible to slugs and rabbits. insects, earthworms and ground to escape predators. farmland where they nest on Look for them growing on fledglings. These tree-nesting Unlike rabbits that are born the ground. Modern farming the ground near birch trees. birds are often seen soaring blind and naked, young hares methods have led to a decline The toadstools we see above overhead. Red kites are also or ‘leverets’ are bright-eyed, in the number of skylarks the ground are actually the common in this area and soar fully furred and ready for in recent years. BBOWT is fruiting bodies of the fungus high above too. But red kites action from birth. Look out working with farmers and which has an extensive body have a distinctive forked tail for them on open grassland landowners to promote hidden within the soil. and two white patches under and farmland. During the wildlife-friendly practices their wings. breeding season in spring to help skylarks and other they can be seen ‘boxing’. farmland birds.

Protecting local wildlife Berkshire Buckinghamshire The route Oxfordshire

STAGE 1 to A4 Start to Inkpen Common nature reserve From Kintbury railway station, cross the canal, then after 100 metres turn 1 right on to Mill Bank. Climb the steps at the end, turn left at the road and Canal follow the footpath past the church, across High Street, along Titcomb Way and past pasture. Cross a stream and continue to the road beside STAGE 2 Titcomb Manor. Turn left, then as the road bends left, take the footpath Inkpen Common nature straight on. Follow the footpath beside field edge, across another road, High Street Inkpen Road reserve to Wayfarer’s Walk and beside paddocks and gardens. At the end of the footpath, cross the Follow the footpath through the driveway and follow the bridleway down through the wooded stream Kintbury Farm nature reserve, and just before the valley to INKPEN COMMON NATURE RESERVE. exit, turn right on to the footpath Kintbury Newt Ponds beside the power lines. After 100 metres, take the left path as it forks, then over the boardwalk to the reserve boundary. Turn right then Titcomb after 400 metres turn left on to the Manor STAGE restricted byway. At Great Farm turn 5 right along the road, and then at the Lower Green to Kintbury right hand bend, take the second railway station footpath (beside the wood). Follow Turn right at the road and head the footpath by the hedge, across towards Inkpen, carry straight on at the road, and up through steeply the first road junction, and then take sloping pasture, heading left of the the footpath just after the second scrub on the ridge line. road junction. Follow the footpath besides gardens and paddocks to Rooksnest Lane Look for pale dog-violet flowering Manor Farm, and then straight on Heads Lane in May and heathers flowering in through pasture and under a large 2 late summer at INKPEN COMMON laurel tree to a private drive. Turn Inkpen NATURE RESERVE. Great Common right and follow the drive on to Lower Pottery Lane Road Pottery Lane. After 100 metres, turn Green right to explore INKPEN CROCUS Manor FIELD NATURE RESERVE. Continue INKPEN COMMON Farm NATURE RESERVE to the end of Pottery Lane, and INKPEN N take the footpath straight on at the Spray Road CROCUS FIELD road junction bearing right across NATURE RESERVE Great Farm field. Turn left on to the track, and 5 then just after crossing the stream, Upper bear left at the path junction, then Green straight on to Great Common Road. Turn left and follow the road to

the main Inkpen Common reserve 0 metres 500 entrance. Retrace your route back to Kintbury.

Look for brown hares in pasture.

Wayfarer’s Walk STAGE 3 Wigmorease 4 Combe

Pond Gibbet 3 Wayfarer’s Walk to Walbury Hill Wigmorease Pond West Woodhay At the ridge, turn right on to STAGE Down the byway (Wayfarer’s Walk), 4 and follow the ridge of the Wigmorease Pond to Hampshire Downs for 1½ Lower Green KEY miles, over the road junction After a small pond, turn left and head directly and past Combe Gibbet. BBOWT Nature Reserve down the steep slope, then take the path left, After 600 metres, at the down to the field corner. Take the bridleway Railway station clump of beech trees, turn beside the tree plantation, then straight on right on to the bridleway. between arable fields to the road. Bus stop Parking Listen for skylarks singing Look for buzzards soaring above the woods. high above the downs.

WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS J F M A M J J A S O N D Purple carpet of heathers at Inkpen Common 4 4 4 Delicate wild flowers on the chalk downs 4 4 4 4 Drifts of purple and white spring crocus at Inkpen Crocus Field 4 4 4 Skylark singing over the downs 4 4 4 4 4 Autumn fungi at Inkpen Common 4 4 4