Arborfield and Farley Hill

The walk initially follows the delightfully named Pudding Lane from the recreation ground in Arborfield and emerges onto the A327 which you follow for several hundred yards. A lane and then fields leads south to a plantation (New Plantation) and a climb up Kiln Hill to the village of Farley Hill.

From here the route wends across tracks and fields back to Arborfield. Four and half miles in all.

From: Rambling for Pleasure: Around Reading second series by David Bounds for the East Berkshire Ramblers’ Association Group.

Map: Explorer 159 (Reading, Wokingham and Pangbourne).

Rating: three stars. Surprisingly rural for a walk so close to Reading, and quiet varied, but lacking any major points of interest.

Reflections

I saw what I thought was a Little Owl perched on the top of a tree as we drew near to Arborfield. The binoculars revealed that it was in fact a cunningly shaped clump of dead leaves, so a bit disappointing. But I was granted what might be seen as a blinding glimpse of the obvious - you can see birds more clearly when there are no leaves on the trees! There may not be so many birds about but it means of course that winter is a good time to improve one's bird identification. I have now packed my bird book in my haversack.