Wychwood Forest & Cornbury Park Perimeter Walk
Wychwood Forest, once a royal hunting ground stretching across much of west Oxfordshire, survives in meaningful fragments around Burford — and the perimeter footpaths skirting Cornbury Park estate offer a genuinely wild, crowd-free walk through ancient oak woodland that feels nothing like a tourist trail.
The Walk Itself
The most rewarding access point is from Leafield village, about four miles northeast of Burford, where a signed bridleway enters the woodland edge and follows the park wall through stands of pedunculate oak, some of which are estimated to be over 400 years old. Fallow deer are almost guaranteed — Cornbury Park has held a herd continuously since the Norman era.
The path loops for approximately five miles through mixed ancient woodland and open rides, with bluebells carpeting the floor in late April and early May in numbers that genuinely stop you walking. It is one of the best bluebell sites in Oxfordshire and almost entirely unknown outside the county.
The forest floor also supports rare woodland fungi in autumn — waxcaps, amethyst deceivers and the occasional fly agaric make October walks here feel like stepping into a fairy tale.
History Buried in the Trees
Wychwood was a favourite hunting ground of Norman and Plantagenet kings — Henry II and Edward the Confessor both hunted here, and a medieval earthwork known as Grim's Ditch cuts through the woodland, visible as a mossy bank that most walkers step over without realising they are crossing an Iron Age boundary.
Cornbury Park itself (private, not open to the public) was once the home of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, and the house is visible in glimpses through the treeline — a baroque manor that looks like it belongs in a period drama, because it has appeared in several.
The combination of ancient trees, royal history and near-total absence of other visitors makes this the most atmospheric walk within easy reach of Burford.
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