Cothill Fen Walk
📍 Cothill
🌿 Nature Reserves
💷 Free
⏰ 2 - 6 hours
👣 Epic Expedition
☕ Pub on route
April 2026 · Nature Adventures · Nature Reserves · Free
A majestic adventure to see fossils, fenland, and a smorgasbord of wildlife.
One Saturday in April, Little Leopard and I set off following this 3 mile walk as suggested by the BBOWT.
The proposed route would have taken us a couple of hours. But we stopped to look at everything, got distracted, stopped at a pub, detoured and got lost several times, and it ended up taking us about 6 hours and I think about 8 miles.
It was pretty epic, and wonderful, and I'm so glad we did it even if Little Leopard did become furious with his achey legs and stop talking to me for a couple of the return miles.
We started in Wootton and followed the paths toward Dry Sandford Pit. Dry Sandford appears to be the most picturesque village imaginable with an almost french feel. I wouldn't have been surprised to stumble accross a boulangerie.
I've wanted to come to Dry Sandford Pit for a while, and it absolutely delivered. The cliffs provided a dramatic backdrop for hunting for fossils (just to look at, it's an SSSI so absolutely nothing should be dug out or taken away), and it was easy to spot the solitary bees buzzing in and out of the holes.
Sitting on the bench felt like stepping back in time, back to the age of the dinosaurs, with the fenland, the grassland, and scrub all combining to create an incredibly special landscape.
It's not a huge place, but the density of things to look at and explore kept us busy for well over an hour, spotting orchid leaves, listening out for water rails and woodpeckers.
We had a very enjoyable pit stop at the Merry Miller pub on our way to the next nature reserve, Parsonage Moor.
What struck me straight away was how diferent it was from Dry Sandford Pit, even though they are incredibly close. Parsonage Moor is still fenland, but it's a much more of a boardwalk-through-the-bog kind of place.
There's not a huge area to explore, its very much a walk up and down the boardwalk, but Little Leopard was happy to sit at the end of the boardwalk and practice his photographic patience, taking photos of ducks in flight, flowers peeking up between the slats, and his highlight, a muntjac deer running across the reserve.
When he saw the deer run towards the Cothill Fen reserve he asked if we could head in that direction, and so started our detour.
Cothill National Nature Reserve wasn't on my radar, but it's right next to Parsonage Moor so it seemed silly not to have a little stroll round.
Visiting here in April was a great (if unplanned) choice. We turned round a corner in the woods to be greeted with a carpet of bluebells in all directions, it was absolutely stunning. And unlike places like Badbury Clump (which is also amazing), we were the only people there.
We didn't see the muntjac here, although it must have run through. But we did see some flowers that we hadn't seen before. An app on my phone told me that it was a cuckoo-flower, often loved by the orange tipped butterfly. I looked up to see Little Leopard taking a picture of just such a butterfly circling the flower.
We rejoined the path heading towards hitchopse pit. Walking along the woodland edge, with scrub on our other side we saw some deer again, which made Little Leopard very happy. I'm not sure they were muntjac this time, they looked bigger so I think it's more likely that those ones were roe deer.
We headed into the woods and I lost all sense of direction, even though the instructions seemed to be very simple. We wandered through far more woods than intended. This is when Little Leopard started to become annoyed with me.
His irritation was delayed when I heard an unfamiliar bird call, and checked on the Merlin App which told me we'd heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker. It didn't take long until we spotted a streak of red swooping among the branches. Little Leopard's been desperate to see a woodpecker, so he was over the moon to get a photo of one flying.
When I finally navigated us to Hitchcopse Pit Nature Reserve, it was another stunner. An old sandpit, with a huge sandy centre still left exposed. We saw rabbits, battled our way through the prickly gorse, and spied on tadpoles in the pond.
Little Leopard loved running up and down the hills, and exploring all the beetles on display. I loved sitting and chilling in the sunshine. It would be a great place to return with friends and a picnic.
When we left, I got a bit lost in the woods again, as Little Leopard became increasigly grumpy and announced that he wanted to go home (at the furthest point away from the start). So we went in circles for a bit more then hurried back through woods and fields until we were back in Dry Sandford, heading to Lashford Lane Fen.
Lashford Lane Fen is smaller, and feels less dramatic than the other reserves we visited nearby. I'm sad that we saved it for last because I'm sure if we'd started with it we would have had more energy to sit and notice a lot more. A lot of the path is closed off because of Ash dieback which also limited how much we could explore
We spent a few minutes looking and listening out for Water Voles, but if those Attenborough docs have taught us anything, its that you've normally got to wait hours and hours for sightings like that, and Little Leopard did not have any more patience to spare, so we'll have to return and try a little harder another day.
Nature Notes
Great Spotted Woodpecker
The woodland drummer
They drum on trees to mark territory and communicate.
Their tongues are so long they wrap around the back of their skull.
Males have a red patch on the back of the head.
They use powerful beaks to dig insects out of bark.
Cuckoo Flower
The wildflower of spring meadows
Also called Lady’s Smock or Milkmaids.
Often blooms in April and May in damp grasslands and meadows.
Its pale pink flowers are a favourite food plant for orange-tip butterfly caterpillars.
The name comes from appearing around the same time cuckoos return to Britain.
Water Voles
Britain’s fastest declining mammal
Often mistaken for rats, but they have rounder faces and furry tails.
Live beside slow-moving rivers, streams and ponds.
Excellent swimmers that can stay underwater for several minutes.
They dig burrows into riverbanks with underwater entrances.
Threatened by habitat loss and invasive American mink.
Stepping back in time with a walk in the most diverse area of Oxfordshire
Address: Parking available at Wootton, Dry Sandford Pit, nearby Hitchcopse Pit.
Parking: Free parking. Check car park opening times.
Opening Hours: Public footpaths are always open
Entry Fee: Free
