In September 2005, I walked the D'Arcy Dalton Circular and in August 2006 I walked The Oxfordshire Way. Having enjoyed these, I thought I'd invent The South Oxfordshire Way.
The aim of the South Oxfordshire Way is to connect the Southern end of the D'Arcy Dalton Way with the Eastern end of the Oxfordshire Way without using the Ridgeway or the Thames Path. So this is a path from Wayland's Smithy to Henley-on-Thames.
I did this walk in 6 days during October 2007. Use the links below to get my daily diary and photos.
| day | date | start | finish | South Oxfordshire Way | ons and offs | total |
| Day 01 | Mon 22nd October 2007 | Ashbury | Childrey | 8.8 | 8.8 | |
| Day 02 | Tue 23rd October 2007 | Childrey | Steventon | 9.5 | 9.5 | |
| Day 03 | Wed 24th October 2007 | Steventon | Long Wittenham | 7.3 | 7.3 | |
| Day 04 | Thu 25th October 2007 | Long Wittenham | Mongewell, A4130/A4024 | 7.6 | 7.6 | |
| Day 05 | Fri 26th October 2007 | Mongewell, A4130/A4024 | Satwell | 8.0 | 0.4 | 8.4 |
| Day 06 | Sat 27th October 2007 | Satwell | Henley-on-Thames | 9.2 | 0.4 | 9.6 |
| 50.4 | 0.8 | 51.2 |
The South Oxfordshire Way could be used as the final segment of a circular route that starts by going along the Oxfordshire Way from Henley to Bruern Abbey, and then along the D'Arcy Dalton Way from Bruern to Wayland's Smithy.
The route for days 1 to 4 use public footpaths that appear on Ordnance Survey Explorer map number 170, and the route for days 5 and 6 use map 191.
These web pages also provide details about the public transport that can be used to do the route. It assumes that you will want to start and end in Abingdon/Radley each day. You'll have to do some homework yourself if you live somewhere else! Although examples are given for October 2007, similar buses/trains can probably be found for other times of the year.
I would like to say thank you to the people who maintain the web pages I use for sorting out which buses and trains to use. I use www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk. Here is a link to their web site. Their web pages are excellent. Not only does the web site sort out connections and give you the timetables for each route, but it also gives you maps showing the position of each bus stop.
If you use the six links given above, you'll find a page containing the details of each day's walk.
Barry Cornelius
first written: September 2006
updated: October 2007