A favourite autumn walk

Ashbury, Odstone Combe, and Wayland’s Smithy

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I’ve not been walking most of the summer; hence a lack of posts. Early in the year I dislocated a big toe, and then later (possibly becasue I changed my gait) I developed achilles tendonitis/bursitis. The only cure is rest – several weeks of it! Twice I thought I was ready and headed out, only for it to “pop” again. It’s now towards the end, I hope, of the third period, and I hope to be able to resume walking, with camera, again in the new year.

 

Meanwhile, here’s a paper walk, which I wrote for the CPRE Oxfordshire Voice Autumn 2025 edition, see page 10.

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A favourite autumn walk is in the south west of the county, from Ashbury, through Odstone Combe, onto the Ridgeway and then east to Wayland’s Smithy.  There and back is fairly short, maybe 3 miles, but there are many options for extensions, including Uffington Castle and the White Horse Hill.

 

Odstone Combe is a secretive, hidden, dry river valley, shaped during the Ice Age.  On the south side are interlocking, rounded spurs, marked with regular horizontal ridges, called terracettes.  At first sight, these look man-made and could be shallow strip lynchets, but they are actually formed naturally, about 12,000 years ago at the end of the ice age, by a process of soil creep down the chalk slopes, called solifluction.

 

On the north side of the Coombe is a magnificent row of beech trees, which are said to have been planted by Lord Wantage to commemorate the battle of Alma in the Crimean war when he was awarded a VC.

Wayland’s Smithy is an ancient burial barrow in use more than 5,000 years ago. Catch it in sunshine, with the surrounding trees in autumn colours and it’s a special, almost spiritual place connecting us with our ancestors.

 

For “real” walks see:

• Photos from walk on 21st November 2024 from Ashbury Folly
• Photos from walk on Thursday 24th October 2024 from White Horse Hill
• Photos from walk on Thursday 18th November 2021 from Ashbury to Ashdown House

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