# 🥾 Walk 65 - Inkpen and Walbury Hill

Sunday 25th August saw twelve walkers gather at Lower Green, Inkpen. These included members of the Pang Valley, Loddon Valley, Mid Berks and West Berks groups as well as our group (and possibly some other groups too).

The BWWs haven't walked in this area before and I haven't walked around here for many years so I was pleased when the Pang Valley group offered it to us as a joint walk.

The day didn't feel like August as we set off. Although it had stopped raining before the walk started, the jackets stayed on for warmth until we got to the uphill stretch.

![Crossing fields to get to Inkpen Hill. Low cloud is enveloping the top of the hill.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/inkpen_hill.jpg)

We set off following footpaths southward across ploughed fields and then up the steep slope (1 in 4) to the top of Inkpen Hill. The view from the top was rather limited by the low cloud.

We followed a path along the top of Gallows Down to Combe Gibbet, built on top of Inkpen Long Barrow. After stopping to admire the gibbet we moved to the south side of Gallows Down to shelter from the wind and have a snack and drink. From there we were just able to see Combe village through the mist.

After our break, we continued east along the Wayfarer's Walk to Walbury Hill, the highest hill in Berkshire, before descending its north-east side. Following a footpath north through Adder's Copse (we didn't see any snakes) we emerged onto a road, which we followed until we reached Inkpen Great Common.

![Combe Gibbet. Built on top of Inkpen Long Barrow.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/combe_gibbet.jpg)

We stopped in the common to eat our packed lunches. Toward the end of our picnic, two wild horses slowly approached us. Needless to say, we made no attempt to feed them, as we had been warned by signs on the way into the common that this was not permitted.

As we left the common, there was a farm on the right of our footpath with something unusual in one of its fields. A boot! Well, a sculpture of a boot, about 2m tall! As there was no public access to the field, we couldn't inspect it closely, so I couldn't say what it was made of.

Our journey continued north from Fox Hill to Titcomb and then north-west to St Cassian's College before turning south-west back to Lower Green, Inkpen, where we had started. See our route on Google Maps. After changing out of our wet boots some of us paid a visit to the Swan pub to try the locally brewed beer.

![Wild horses living in Inkpen Great Common.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/inkpen_horses.jpg)

Our walk leader (Peter from the Pang Valley group) was obviously a geologist and during the walk was able to point out a number of geological features, including a couple of sinkholes. He explained how a stream could end in a basin, below which the water drained away through cracks in the limestone substrata. These didn't look spectacular, not like the well known sinkhole 'Gaping Gill', and would probably go unnoticed by most people, particularly at this time of year when the streams aren't flowing and the sinkholes are covered in dry mud.

![An unusual (but quite apt for us) sculpture in a field on Willow Farm.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume5/images/willow_farm_boot.jpg)

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