Peter Schrammel - Mountains

5. 4. 2025

Peter Schrammel

Weather

cloudless, 1° in the morning, 20° in the afternoon

Interest

****: Varied wildlife safari tour on fantastic paths

Route

Newbury, 78m - Walbury Hill, 297m - Faccombe, 232m - Ashmansworth, 237m - Sidown Hill, 266m - Ladle Hill, 232m - Watership Down, 237m - Hannington, 202m - Plantation Hill, 185m - Kingsclere, 102m - Greenham and Crookham Common, 115m - Newbury

Elevation gain

1028m

Distance

66km

Timing

5 3/4h (1 1/4 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/3 + 1 + 1/4 + 1/2 + 1/6 + 1/3 + 2/3 + 1/2)

Stamina

Difficulty

++-+++: steep road (>15%) to Sandpits Down, rough gravel +-++ to Walbury Hill, even rougher ++ down to Gallows Down parking, steep road (>15%) to Faccombe, Wayfarers Walk from Red Hill road: first gravel road +-++, then pasture + followed by deeply furrowed bridle way down to A34 ++-+++, west of A34 +, beautiful single trail east of A34 and up to Litchfield Down ++, short section ++-+++, to Nuthanger Down mostly grassy +, fantastic single trail to Watershed Down ++-+++, gravel down to White Hill road +-++, grass and dirt to Hennginton Road +-++, steep tarmac road (>15%) to Plantation Hill, Greenham and Crookham Common gravel +

Danger

0: car traffic

Visitor frequency

c: very high density of dog walkers between Ladle Hill and White Hill Road

Comments

Mountainbike recommended

Report

Last time I cycled from Swindon to Newbury I didn’t have enough time to reach Walbury Hill and the lovely Combe valley. So, I had to come back and this early April Saturday. I took the first train to Newbury at 5.50am. When I left the train station at 7am, it had barely above 0°. I took the country road to Enborne where I took pictures of the church yard in the morning light. I made fast progress via North End towards Sandpits Down, where the road steepens and the view along the steep northern slopes of the Walbury Hill chain opens up. While I was taking pictures, I suddenly noticed something large brown in the meadows at the foot of the hills. I took out my camera with the telephoto lens and identified it as roebuck grazing next to a couple of pheasants. A red kite was circling above the scenery. To reach the summit I took a rough gravel road, lined with colourful markings of stands for the Sunday hunt as it seemed. Finally, Iwalked across the flat meadow to reach the trig point after 8.15am. Due to the enormous summit flat the view is not very good. The wind was blowing relentlessly so that I put on my soft shell jacket again and returned to the bicycle. When riding down towards the Gallows Down parking, I didn’t notice that suddenly the grass got humid in the shadow. Suddenly my front wheel slipped sideways and I hit the ground with my elbow and hips. This was quite painful as there were some flat rocks under the grass too. I got up and checked the state of my limbs. Everything seemed ok, only some abrasions and bruising. I carefully rolled down the single-track road to Combe. There I noticed more pheasants in the fields. A little later two red deer hinds were fleeing across a large field as I approached while on the other side of the road a hare was escaping into the forest. I passed by a gigantic buxus hedge in Netherton before climbing up a steep road to Faccombe. After passing by the meticulously maintained churchyard I rode down into another lovely valley and climbed up to Ashmansworth. There I found another example of buxus art sculptured into the shape of an enormous dwarf sitting next to the war memorial. After a short, nastily section on the A343 I turned into the byway marked as Wayfarer’s Walk, which led me past the tiny castle of Grotto Lodge towards wooded Sidown Hill. There was nothing to see, so I continued further until the view opened towards the south and Beacon Hill in the north. The marked path soon left the gravel road and crossed a pasture densely inhabited by sheep. The final section down to the A34 was close to unridable due to the deep furrows which caused the pedals to constantly get stuck and throwing me off balance. Suddenly I felt a pain in my left knee. Fearing that I had twisted my knee I rolled down cautiously and examined it in the valley. There was no pain under strain, so I could continue without problems following the path towards Litchfield. Suddenly I noticed a hare ducking down into the field, only to run way a few seconds later as I passed. After passing under the A34, a sign indicated that riding into Litchfield was undesired. So, I continued back up the A34 again. This path was a fabulous single trail between hawthorn hedges in full bloom. After passing a dogwalker I reached the former underpass under the former railway Newbury-Andover, which has become unusable since the construction of the A34 requiring the weird detour towards Litchfield. The road which used to be tarmacked but now, half a century later, has been almost entirely retaken by nature led me up to the flats of Litchfield Down and further past a solitary tree to the hill fort of Ladle Hill. It was towards 10.30am and I was getting hungry. So, I sat down in one of the moats, sheltered from the wind, to have lunch. The view to Beacon Hill across the valley and the plains in the north was stunning. After 11am I continued eastwards, encountering lots of dogwalkers who parked their cars along the narrow road west of Watership Down. The path to the summit was again a wonderful single-trail. On the eastern shoulder of Watership Down there is a race course with what seemed to be enormous buxus-art-style obstacles. Further down there is a beautiful view over the combe west of White Hill road. I continued on the single trail towards Hannington road and further up and down to Hannington. Suddenly I noticed that I had a flat rear tyre. The inner tube had a hole directly at the valve and was thus unpatchable. So, I replace it by a spare inner tube. 15 minutes later I rolled down the hill and took the road up to Plantation Hill. To my surprise this road was tarmacked, which was good because it was again quite steep. For the way down I decided not to take the dirt path to Kingsclere, but in order to reduce the risk of a further puncture I chose the way via the A339. I cycled through Kingsclere without stopping and continued the country road from the roundabout northwards. To my discontent, I noticed that my rear tyre felt quite soft again. It was clearly losing air. So, I pumped it up again. Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the problem and I kept topping up the air until I decided near Headley to take out the inner tube and investigate. There was a tiny puncture. However, shockingly, I there was no rubber solution in my repair kit. Damn! To my further annoyance the dogs in the house nearby kept barking at me. But maybe there would be somebody who can help. So, I looked and waved at an elderly couple in the garden who came and got the dogs under control. Fortunately, they were well-equipped as they had just fixed a puncture in their wheelbarrow. Glad that they saved me 2 hours of walking my bicycle, I continued towards Crookham Common. Unexpectedly, I got alerted by signs that the road would cross River Enborne via a ford. I had such a problem before and that had caused me a massive detour back then. Luckily, though, there was a footbridge next to the ford. Less luckily, I noticed that the tyre had become soft again. But now there were only 5km to go. So, I kept topping up while crossing Greenham and Crookham Commons, a former military airfield turned nature reserve. I had plenty of time. So, I continued into the town centre to buy ice cream and enjoy the warm spring day before taking the train back to Oxford after 3pm.

Newbury - Walbury Hill - Ladle Hill