Sherington to Olney

As the crow flies, It is less than 3 miles from Sherington to Olney, but no self-respecting crow would follow the route of the Ouse Valley Way between the two; instead of heading almost due north, the Ouse Valley Way heads two miles west from Sherington to Tyringham before meandering its way north east to Emberton Country Park and Olney.

We walked this leg of the path on a Sunday morning following a staff development meeting at the Open University and a Newport Pagnell Singers concert on the Saturday. We stayed at The Swan Revived in Newport Pagnell and left the hotel around 8am; by 8.45 we were walking, having left one car in the long stay car park off East Road in Olney (SP893517) and the other in the car park at Sherington Village Hall (SP890466). It was a bright sunny morning.

The route leaves Sherington by way of Water Lane, initially a not very interesting tarmacked lane. Near End Farm we took a grassy track around the houses, then realised that we needed to be on the opposite side of a locked gate, so retraced our steps and discovered that the correct route is a gravel track close to the buildings. Soon afterwards things improved considerably; we came alongside the River Great Ouse and passed a wind pump. There was attractive rolling countryside to our right. Hill Plantation, through which we would walk on the return route from Tyringham, was only a few hundred yards up the hill but we had another mile or so of walking before we got there.

We had good views of Tyringham Bridge and Tyringham Church to our left and as we reached a minor road, Tyringham Hall was visible through the trees in front of us. We turned right and then right again, towards Fences Farm, now on the route of the Three Shires Way (signposted) as well as the Ouse Valley Way (not signposted!). We climbed to Hill Plantation, reaching a local maximum just before the wood, with good views to Weston Underwood.

We could hear shooting in the distance, but thankfully this was not on our route. We emerged onto a road and turned left, with a signpost announcing that we were in Filgrave. After a short distance we turned right towards Rectory Farm, The route in this area was a little complicated because there were lots of footpaths, but we essentially skirted around fields between Emberton and Weston Underwood. It was lovely rolling countryside.

We descended to the Emberton Country Park and walked through a caravan site. We passed Grebe Lake (with geese, ducks and small children), then followed the river to Heron Water (with sailing) and between Heron Water and Otter pool to the A509.