28 June 2011 Starting & ending on OS Explorer 172 Chiltern Hills
East, but mostly on Explorer 171 Chiltern Hills West
Length: All day
This walk features several Chilterns rarities, but the most prevalent plants on this date were pyramidal orchids Anacamptis pyramidalis and dark mullein Verbascum nigrum, common at many locations and in full flower. Early June would be better timing for the military orchid Orchis militaris, but late June is better for many other plants on the route. Red kites sailed overhead for most of the day.
We parked at a small parking bay at the edge of Pullingshill Wood (just west of Marlow) where a footpath crosses it from east to west, SU822865. The wood is managed by Marlow Parish Council and is noted for extensive diggings, the result of practice trenches during the First World War. The trees at the top where we started are mixed oak, birch and beech, with wood sedge Carex sylvatica beneath, but more extensive beech Fagus sylvatica on the slope down as we walked west along the footpath, with virtually no ground flora. A more open ride along the bottom of the wood has wood melick Melica uniflora, dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis, and woodruff Galium odoratum, which were all extensive in woods throughout the day.
The footpath continues straight on out of the wood along a hedgerow by pasture, gradually rising uphill. The flora improved as we rose to chalkier horizons. Lower down the hedge-bank, with its old coppiced and laid trees, was largely dominated by agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria and rough chervil Chaerophyllum temulum, with pyramidal orchids and dark mullein becoming increasingly frequent, eventually joined by rest-harrow Ononis repens, vervain Verbena officinalis, long-stalked cranesbill Geranium columbinum, fairy flax Linum catharticum, greater knapweed Centaurea scabiosa, musk mallow Malva moschata, musk thistle Carduus nutans (in the neighbouring field) and Leer’s sedge Carex divulsa ssp leersii.
Pyramidal orchid
Vervain
We saw a hare on the path well ahead of us. A large hoverfly with a divided orange band on the first large abdominal segment and bright yellow face was the uncommon Volucella inflata, associated with sap-runs on old trees. Although the weather was overcast, marbled white butterflies were flying.
Over a stile the path veered left along another field hedgerow. Here there was field madder Sherardia arvensis and red bartsia Odontites vernus, but we were now largely in improved grassland with little variety. Over another stile we crossed the lane and, slightly to the right, entered the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust Reserve of Homefield Wood, an SSSI owned by the Forestry Commission.
Homefield Wood
The forest track passes through pine plantations, but the trackside vegetation is rich with nettle-leaved bellflower Campanula trachelium, meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria, hemp agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum, and bee orchids Ophrys apifera. There were lots of the large bright orange and black larvae of the harlequin ladybird, while spikes of dark mullein held the scarce Cionus nigritarsus weevil, roundish and grey with two conspicuous round black spots.
Nettle-leaved bellflower
Dark mullein
Harlequin ladybird larva
We took a path on the right that led to a gate providing access to a chalk bank rich in flowers.
Homefield Bank
Pyramidal orchids were the most prominent among retired cowslip Primula veris stems, lady’s bedstraw Galium verum, and common centaury Centaurium erythraea. Pride of place, however, goes to the rare soldier (or military) orchid which is well scattered over the slope, but was now in seed. An early June walk would catch it in full flower.
Military orchid (taken early June)
Twayblades Neottia ovata were still in full flower, with common spotted orchids Dactylorhiza fuchsii going over and broad-leaved helleborines Epipactis helleborine still bent over at the top in bud.
Twayblade
Other flowers included clustered bellflower Campanula glomerata, glaucous sedge Carex flacca, ox-eye daisy Leucanthemum vulgare, rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, wild basil Clinopodium vulgare, yellow rattle Rhinanthus minor, wild thyme Thymus polytrichus on the anthills, and sweetbriar Rosa rubiginosa.
Clustered bellflower
We also saw banks voles, slow-worms and a dark bush cricket.
Slow-worm
Dark bush cricket
At the bottom of the bank a track leads up to a gate and a ride through woodland, near which we saw a single specimen of wood small-reed Calamagrostis epigeios. Along the edge of ride can be seen more bee, spotted and pyramidal orchids, helleborines and twayblade. Returning along the bottom of the chalk bank we were pleased to spot a single specimen of fly orchid Ophyrs insectifera there, as they can be elusive and are rarely in large numbers.
Fly orchid
We returned to the main woodland ride by which we entered the reserve and continued west along it, gradually leaving behind the abundant chalk flora as we rose into the clays of Heath Wood, eventually dominated by silverweed Potentilla anserina. We were still largely in conifer plantations. The path gradually bends right towards the north edge of the wood, where there were several shooting parties operating in the fields of the Hutton Estate, as noisy as the police and military helicopters that passed over frequently – who looks to the countryside for peace and quiet? At the corner of the wood we turned up the left-hand footpath, keeping just within the boundary of the trees. We crossed a path junction, keeping on to the west edge of the wood, past unremarkable vegetation with many clumps of remote sedge. At the next junction we turned right, crossed a farm track and walked straight through a wheat-field.
The path briefly entered woodland again before exiting and following the edge of the wood and another field of wheat. A few arable annuals grew here – including scarlet pimpernel Anagallis arvensis ssp arvensis, field madder, and round-leaved fluellen Kickxia spuria. The path then crossed through the wheat again, across a lane and entered a small wood managed by the Game Conservancy Trust just to the right. Again little of note here except for a clump of tutsan Hypericum androsaemum, probably introduced with planting for game. We took the first path to the right, leaving the wood and crossing yet another large wheat-field, disturbing a skylark from the crop. The path reaches another lane at Rockwell End (essentially just a group of farms), just where two large marker oaks stand. We turned left here, walking through Rockwell End, taking the right fork and at a bend taking a footpath left between a hedge and a field of rape where pineapple weed Matricaria discoidea was the dominant plant, with a little field pansy Viola arvensis and common poppy Papaver rhoeas. Here we saw our first painted lady butterfly of the year. We then entered a double hedgerow, apparently marking an old green lane that has been destroyed further east. The hedges were predominantly coppiced hazel Corylus avellana.
The path now starts descending into the Hambleden Valley
Russian comfrey
A hedge with much spindle Euonymus europaeus and dogwood Cornus sanguinea to the left obscures views of the valley and this eventually becomes another section of double hedge until we crossed another lane and straight across a tall-grass meadow, semi-improved but still with numbers of pyramidal orchids and dark mullein. A stile took us into a thistly field with more flowers, dark mullein, long-headed poppy Papaver dubium ssp dubium, common toadflax Linaria vulgaris, musk thistle, and white campion Silene latifolia ssp alba.
Common toadflax
Musk thistle
The next field, however, was less flowery, dominated by false oat-grass Arrhenatherum elatius and Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus. To the left is a good view of the valley and the old Arizona Farm.
The next meadow is also grass-dominated and the final one before the village of Skirmett
Skirmett
At the road we turned left, then right at a corner where there are a number of sarsen stones, past a number of old cottages until we reached The Frog on the left for our lunch-break.
The Frog
While enjoying this there was a heavy thunderstorm outside we were glad to have escaped, although we were nevertheless to get very wet (at least to the tops of our legs) because of sometimes having to walk through tall wet grass the rest of the day.
After a good rest we took the footpath almost opposite the pub, between cottages, rejoining the Chiltern Way (which circles around the eastern side of the village). Crossing two fields, this path enters another double hedgerow, with some small toadflax Chaenorinum minus, wild mignonette Reseda lutea, pryamidal orchids and nettle-leaved bellflower on the banks. Going steeply upwards out of the valley gave us plenty of time to admire them! The bellflower continued into Adam’s Wood, and so did the climb, partly along a sunken way.
Adam’s Wood
This wood is owned by the Woodland Trust. The trees are virtually all young ones, and there were lots of cut wood lying everywhere. There were also large patches of bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta, now of course long over. Otherwise the ground flora is largely dog’s mercury and sanicle Sanicula europaea. At the top of the wood and the end of the climb, the Chiltern Way goes west to Fingest, but we turned right along the edge of Mousells Wood, scaring a green woodpecker from nearby trees. It flew directly up the path in front showing clearly its yellow rump. In 100 metres we took the path left into this wood, continuing along the top of it for a while until we met a path crossing which took us left straight down the hill, losing all the height we had just so laboriously attained! The wood is mixed beech, quite open and grassy in places.
Mousells Wood
At the road at the bottom of the wood we turned left. The opposite verge has plenty of pyramidal orchids and kidney vetch Anthyllis vulneraria. Other road verge plants include cowslip, goatsbeard Tragopogon pratensis, greater knapweed Centaurea scabiosa, and hedgerow crane’s-bill Geranium pyrenaicum.
Wet goatsbeard seed-head
At the road junction the road off the to the right has slightly shorter grass screened by shrubs and this is the famous site for the rare dragon’s teeth Tetragonolobus maritimus, whose large pale yellow vetch-like flowers, singly on each stem, were very conspicuous. Our timing was just right, being in perfect fresh flower for the most part, although a few flowers had already turned into the long pods that stand up from the turf and are supposed to resemble dragon’s teeth.
Dragon’s-teeth
Dragon’s-teeth in fruit
After admiring these flowers for a while we crossed the road to the footpath running east up Hanover Hill (steep again!). After cow-pasture we walked between a wood and a field of barley. At a kissing-gate a path comes off to the left towards Lane End, but we ignored this one, and in 100 metres our own path turned left to cross fields, across Long Copse and then beside it until we diverted along a footpath to the right across fields over rolling hills. The meadows here had been just cut for silage. Just before Muswell Farm there were two clumps of tansy Tanecetum vulgare, not yet in flower. After skirting the farm the path comes to a track where we turned left to reach the road at Moor Common, past some plants of the cottage garden plant, greater celandine Chelidonium majus.
A little way to the right a track diverges left across the wooded common to the footpath along the eastern side. In the wood not far from a cottage off this track was a large stand of larkspur Consolida ajacis. We turned right to take the footpath south through the common, initially among old oak and birch trees and alongside a medieval boundary bank and ditch separating Moor Copse – the ditch being on the common side, this boundary was to prevent stock on the common entering the wood. Among the trees was just emerging a specimen of green brittlegill Russula aeruginea, a common brownish species associated with birch. We soon came to the open part of Moorend Common with gorse and boggy grassland.
Oak tree and bog, Moorend Common
Here there were many plants quite unlike those of the chalk hills we had so far walked: yellow rattle Rhinanthus minor, clustered rush Juncus conglomeratus, bifid hemp-nettle Galeopsis bifida, greater birdsfoot trefoil Lotus pedunculatus, southern marsh orchid Dactylorhiza praetermissa in impressive arrays, ragged-robin Lychnis flos-cuculi, betony Stachys officinalis, lousewort Pedicularis sylvatica with its pink flowers and small crinkly leaves hugging the ground, tormentil Potentilla erecta ssp erecta, sneezewort Achillea ptarmica, petty whin Genista anglica now in seed, marsh thistle Cirsium palustre, and hairy sedge Carex hirta.
Southern marsh orchid
Betony
Ragged robin
Lousewort
Sneezewort
Marsh thistle
Marbled white on marsh orchid
Just outside a house at the far end of the common (Moor End) was a clump of pencilled cranesbill Geranium versicolor, after which we crossed the road and a piece of woodland with a clump of stinking hellebore Helleborus foetidus (no doubt a garden escape). At a junction of paths, complicated by a new forestry track and an overgrown footpath, we found it easiest to go through the gate into the field to the right, following a footpath going NW, and to turn left and go up beside the wood to join the path going west as it emerges from wood after a few dozen metres. This path goes up through cow-pasture and then beside a hedgerow, eventually coming to a lane just past a cluster of new barns. It is not necessary to go into the lane itself, as there is a footpath going south beside it on the other side of the road hedge, which eventually comes out into a wide road verge with a row of planted trees, mostly turkey oak Quercus cerris just forming their acorns, but also flowering sweet chestnuts Castanea sativa and a pedunculate oak Q. robur. One of the turkey oaks had a girth of 487cm, so this row must have been planted several centuries ago. Old oyster mushrooms were growing on logs fallen from one of the sweet chestnuts.
Old turkey oak
Where the road bends we joined it to continue south past St Katherine’s Convent at Parmoor. Just before a few cottages a narrow lane comes off to the right, the destination broken from the signpost – as this lane does not exactly lead anywhere in particular it is difficult to imagine how it would be signed! We took this lane for over a kilometre through large wheat-fields, in what must be one of the quietest and most remote locations in Bucks. Its isolation was reinforced by the sight of a herd of 15 roe deer amongst the wheat, eventually bounding over the tall rows of crops as we got too close for their liking. The lane ends in a T-junction, having not passed any habitation whatsoever, and here we crossed to a footpath that continued in the same direction past Chisbridge Farm. This was a narrow section of tall grass between wheat-field and hedgerow.
After crossing another hedge the path crosses sheep-pasture and then beside a hedge marking the boundary of the Woodend House estate to the south. A few parkland trees are still visible. A new hedge has been planted on the other side of the path too, screening the vista towards other remote large houses at Holme Wood, including one with a green roof, huge windows and sculptures. As we crossed the track connecting the two estates a young buzzard flew out of a sycamore tree. The path eventually bends right and goes south along a line of young larch, with plentiful golden-coloured larch boletes beneath them and in the grassy path. This path leads straight into the dead-end lane that leads up to Woodend House and we followed this south (some marsh cudweed Gnaphalium uliginosum in the verge) past a few houses to a house on the right called Arbon, where a path goes off left through the hedge and diagonally across a wheat-field to Lower Woodend. Here we turned right along the road to a footpath on the left between tall garden fences and round behind a garden before continuing across a field by a hedge down to a valley bottom with a farm track. We crossed the track to the stile opposite, where there was a large patch of rest-harrow. The path went diagonally across one final pasture to Lord’s Wood, where the path is fenced both sides and eventually opens into a track along Marlow Common, which we followed south to the road which goes by Pullinghill Wood and to our parking-place.
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