Knowl Hill, Berkshire

Distance 24.6km (15.3 miles) Climbing 270m (885ft) Time 1hr 30mins to 2hrs 30mins

Route summary A gentle and pleasant ride through some lovely countryside, along well-marked trails, with great pubs and cafes along the way.

Start/Finish Waltham St Lawrence roadside parking (grid ref SU 830/769, postcode RG10 0JJ).

1

Head west on Milley Road, past Neville Hall on your right. After the last houses, turn left on a byway (Knowl Hill Bridleway Circuit – KHBC). At the next road, go left (on a track by the tarmac on the far side), then soon after, turn right on a lane, which becomes o -road, then turns back into a lane. Ride to a road T-junction and go left (by a small horse-rider sign).

2

After 150m fork right on Bailey’s Lane. Follow this, bearing left, then turn o to the right, signed ‘Shurlock Row’, on Brook Lane. Proceed for 100m then turn left after the houses onto a byway (with a KHBC sign). Go left at the road, over a bridge and turn right, then left past a house on the KHBC.

3

Follow this byway around a left-hand bend, to a road and go right on it. After 350m turn o left on the KHBC (it’s easy to miss, but signposted and lies just before a large road sign on the right). Keep ahead through Shottesbrooke Park (joining and leaving the main track by the main house), then bear slightly right to pass between the avenue of trees.

4

Go left on the road and ride for 1.8km, to a fork. Turn right on the KHBC, across open land. After the trail bears left, keep ahead/left into the trees and into Littlewick Green village. Bear to the right of the green, cross the A4 onto Green Lane and the track becomes o -road.

Maps produced in

association with 5

At the road, go left to a crossroads in Burchett’s Green, where you turn left. Proceed for 400m then bear right on Honey Lane. Keep ahead/left at the first fork, then right at the next, past the Dew Drop Inn. Continue straight on this bridleway, then make a left at the T-junction. Go right at the track crossing with a wider trail, keeping left on the KHBC.

6

Go sharply left at a junction and keep ahead to another junction with tarmac. Continue ahead on this (Hodgedale Lane), past some houses, and keep right then right again on the road to Warren Row. After the village, turn left at a crossroads, on Rose Lane, to another one where you go left on the byway lane past the gatehouse, towards Bowsey Hill.

7

Keep ahead/left and ride into the trees. Take a right at the first fork, then go immediately right at the one after (leaving the KHBC), downhill. Look out for, and take, a permissive bridleway on the left after 600m and follow this, which becomes a lane, to the A4. Go left beside this, for 200m, then right on a dead-end road (Knowl Hill Common).

8

By the common, turn right on the KHBC and follow it past a golf course (watch for golfers crossing) and keep ahead/ right, crossing the railway. This becomes tarmac. Keep right at the fork, back to Waltham St Lawrence village to finish.