# 🥾 Walk 434 - Ewelme and Swyncombe Downs

Autumn had noticeably started just before our walk on 27th September, with daily temperatures dropping by 10 degrees over the previous week. Gone were the tee-shirts and shorts and on went the fleeces and woollies. Six of us (including a recent joiner and a prospective new member) met up at an off-road parking area south of Britwell Salome in Oxfordshire (about 4 miles east-northeast of Wallingford) for a nine mile figure-of-eight walk led by Sharon.

We started by following the Swan's Way south from the parking area. This area is laced with good chalky paths, much loved by cyclists, of which we encountered quite a few. The open fields provided splendid views of the Chilterns, but exposed us to some stiff breezes on some parts of the walk. Very bracing!

![Walking into the wind on Rabbits Hill, near Ewelme.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume33/images/rabbits_hill.jpg)

Switching from the Swan's Way to the Chiltern Way we were now travelling north-west on a track called Potters Lane. Leaving the Chiltern Way, we crossed a couple of roads as we reached Rabbits Hill, where we stopped to admire the view before turning north and heading into the village of Ewelme. Here we re-joined the Chiltern Way, passing Church Farm where we saw some colossal Berkshire pigs, before completing the first loop of the figure-of-eight.

All of us stayed to do the second loop, which took us in the direction of Britwell Salome, a tiny village with a population of about 200 but has a church and a manor house. We didn't reach the village, but instead re-joined the Swan's Way and then switched to The Ridgeway at North Farm.

![On <i>The Ridgeway</i> between Westernend Shaw and Swyncombe House.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume33/images/westernend_shaw.jpg)

An uphill stretch took us to Dean Wood, where we found somewhere to eat our packed lunches. There was what looked like a disused horse jumping fence to sit on, surrounded by beech trees. As the wind blew through their leaves, the rustling sound was suggestive of the sea lapping a shingle shore.

After lunch, we continued following The Ridgeway southward to Swyncombe House, where we stopped to look at the Grade II listed Church of Saint Botolph. We left The Ridgeway soon afterwards and followed Ladies Walk until it joined the Swan's Way which we followed north, back to where we'd started. See our route on Google Maps. We'd taken just under three-and-a-half hours (including the lunch stop) to complete nine miles with 1080 feet of ascent in total. Not bad!

![Saint Botolph's Church at Swyncombe House.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume33/images/st_botolphs_church.jpg)

*Thank you to Sharon for leading this walk.*

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