Henley circular walk

Henley circular via Hambleden

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Distance: 8.7 miles.
Time without long breaks: 4 1/2-5 hours (add time for pubs).

Terrain: Easy but one short, fairly steep climb.
How to get there and back: Catch a train to Henley-on-Thames and back. Trains run from Paddington (change at Twyford) and usually take about an hour.
Pubs: The Flower Pot at Aston and the Stag and Huntsman at Hambleden. There are also a few decent ones to choose from in Henley.
More information: A lot of this walk follows the riverside path so will be muddy in winter. Take your boots.

Starting and ending in the riverside town of Henley-on-Thames – famous for its annual Royal Regatta – this easy-going walk takes you along the riverbank and into the surrounding Chiltern countryside. It visits the village of Aston and its splendid pub, the Flower Pot. You cross the river via a bridge over a spectacular weir at Hambleden Lock. The route then takes you through Hambleden village (look out for red kites, which were reintroduced near here in the early 1990s – see the panel below). You then follow the river downstream back to Henley, passing the folly at Temple Island.

Turn right as you exit the station and walk up to Station Road. Take a left and then a right into Reading Road to reach Henley town centre. When you get to the crossroads at Market Place, with Henley Town Hall on your left, turn right down Hart Street towards the church. The singer Dusty Springfield, who lived in Henley during the latter part of her life, is commemorated here (every year on her birthday the town hosts a 'Dusty Day'). Near the church is one of Henley's oldest buildings, Chantry House, while next door is the Red Lion hotel and, almost opposite it, the Angel pub. Cross over the river via the 18th-century stone bridge.

After about 200m go through the metal swing gate on the right, alongside two metal farm gates, still following the Chiltern Way. The path runs between two fields. When you reach some trees, ignore the track that crosses the path, but carry on on along the southern edge of the trees. The path emerges via some wooden gates at a lane on the edge of the village of Aston. Take a left here. At a fork in the road, you will find the Flower Pot hotel. This lovely country pub, which has a great beer garden and a collection of taxidermy, is the perfect place to stop for lunch. On leaving the Flower Pot, head down Ferry Lane towards the Thames.

Walk up to the main road, then turn right and take the next turning on the left by a farm into Skirmett Road. In about 350m, you will come to a turning on the right with a road sign pointing to Rotten Row. Take the metal gate swing gate ahead to your right, next to a wooden farm gate, into the Hambleden Estate. The path runs parallel to the road before crossing a lane and then continues through the field on the other side. This emerges via a small metal gate at the beautiful, quintessential Chiltern village of Hambleden. Turn right and walk up the lane to reach the village square.

The path climbs steeply through the woods and bears right before emerging from the trees and crossing a bridleway. Continue along the path straight ahead along the edge of a field with bushes on your left. At the end of the field, cross over a stile into the next field and then over a couple more, crossing a farm lane. The path emerges via a gate onto a road. Take care crossing over and walk along the pavement alongside a fence (on the other side is the Greenlands Hotel and a campus of the Henley Business School). Keep going along the pavement after the fence ends. Opposite a lay-by with some farm gates, you will see a stile with a footpath sign. Cross over into Greenlands Park.

Keep going along the river path until it turns right along a line of trees into Fawley Meadows, passing a rugby pitch and going through trees before emerging at Marlow Road by a metal gate. Turn left and then left again when you reach the roundabout into Bell Street, which has some fine Georgian buildings. Take a left when you reach the junction with New Street, which will take you back to the riverfront. When you reach the Red Lion and the bridge, cross straight over to the Angel, which has a lovely riverside terrace. Carry on walking along the river until you reach Station Road on your right. Turn right here to reach Henley Station.

On the other side of the bridge, you pass the regatta headquarters. When you reach the Little Angel pub, turn left down Remhenham Lane. Follow the lane round, and just after the last house on the left go through the gate on the right in the hedge. This is the Chiltern Way. The path follows the farm track before going straight ahead when the track ends and then cutting diagonally across the next field. It then heads into trees, where it joins another track before coming off on the right, cutting across a small field and entering Remenham Wood. When the track leaves the wood, it goes across a larger field before emerging through a hedge at Remhenham Church Lane. Turn left.

There are great views across the river from the end of the lane. Turn left, go over the wooden bridge and through the gate, following the sign. Head along the riverbank (warning: it can get flooded here in winter). After passing a metal gate, the path merges with a small lane. In a short distance, you will come to Hambleden Lock. Cross over the bridge towards the house and then cross the river over the weir via the walkway. On the Buckinghamshire bank, you will come to Hambleden Mill and marina (there was a mill listed here in the Doomsday book). To the south-east of the mill, on the riverfront, is the site of a Roman villa.

The 14th-century parish church of St Mary the Virgin on your left contains a striking memorial to local gent Cope D'Oyley and his family. Turn left past the church to reach Elizabethan Hambleden Manor, where Charles I stayed for a night after fleeing from Oxford during the English Civil War. Just beyond the church, there is a lovely row of houses and the Stag & Huntsman, a pub, hotel and restaurant. Leave Hambleden the way you came, but instead of going through the gate carry on down the lane. When it meets the road, cross over and take the path opposite, which goes up some steps by some metal railings, following the sign.

The path runs past oak trees before going over a driveway and a bridge by a lake. It then crosses a campsite and goes through some trees to reach the Thames. Opposite is Temple Island, an eyot with a folly built in 1771 by the architect James Wyatt. It has an ornate interior, but visitors need permission to visit the island, which is also a nature reserve. Heading downstream, you will soon come to a footbridge, from where you can see Fawley Court, a large country house, opposite the village of Renenham on the other bank. There has been an estate here since pre-Norman times but the present building was rebuilt by Christopher Wren. The grounds were landscaped by Lancelot Capability Brown.

We were accompanied by a pair of red kites for a massive stretch of this walk, tumbling and turning with each other, playful and acrobatic. They are a magnificent sight – mundane for some who live in areas where they have thrived, but a joyous sight for those who aren’t so lucky. They have had a stormy relationship with humans and were hunted to extinction in England and Scotland by the 1870s – a far cry from when they were lauded as valuable street cleaners in medieval times, feeding on humanity’s detritus and protected by royal decree. Mentioned in his plays, they were a familiar sight in Shakespeare’s London – the ‘city of kites and crows’ mentioned in Coriolanus. As they proliferated, their popularity waned and they were accused of feasting on babies and farm stock and regarded as vermin. The accusations were unfounded (they feed on carrion and small mammals), but even today there is the odd report of errant kites stealing sausage rolls and custard creams. A reintroduction programme began in the 1990s in the Chilterns (at Stokenchurch, a few miles north of Hambleden). It has seen red kites prosper and you will almost certainly catch a glimpse of them, or hear their distinctive call, as they are now a common sight in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and beyond.

Red Kite is the opening track of one of the best albums of the 2010s. All the tracks on The Bird School of Being Human by Woodpecker Wooliams are named after birds – from sparrow to gull to dove. Red Kite covers male aggression and a dysfunctional relationship, but also captures the soaring beauty of the red kite, described as ‘more than my favourite bird’ by Gemma Williams – the then trainee midwife and beekeeper, who ‘killed’ Woodpecker off in September 2013. (Gemma later reappeared in Becky Becky – a ‘literary-inspired electro-synth-pop duo’ – with an album based on the Jean Rhys novel Good Morning, Midnight). Another chance to see this compelling performer revisit the songs from this little-known harp- and drone-driven gem from 2012 is very much desired. BH

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Henley circular via Hambleden

Click on the image below to access the full map on plotaroute

Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond

Click on the image below to access
the full map on plotaroute