Top 6 Natural Monuments around Aston Abbotts

A monument made up of a group of 3 stones marks the top of Haddington Hill. Standing at 267m high, Haddington Hill is the highest point of the Chiltern Hills, so appreciate a breather and reflect on your hard work before enjoying a steady descent back to your starting point.

A modest, evocative cairn under a spreading tree to mark the high point of Chiltern Hills. Also, County top for Buckinghamshire!

Easy to miss it, have been cycling past for years. Needed komoot to point it out

This rock is a glacial erratic. It travelled all the way from Derbyshire in a glacier, at the end of the Ice Age. Oliver Cromwell used it as a podium during an attack on the local church during the English Civil War. Locals say it's the petrified foot of the devil that someone cut it off with a sword. They call it the Solbury Boot. It sits right in the middle of the road.

Tring Reservoirs Nature Reserve comprises four individual reservoirs: Startop's End, Marsworth and Tringford reservoirs are all close together and Wilstone reservoir is a short distance to the west. The reservoirs are home to a variety of wildlife and their reedbeds, wet woodland and open water habitats are a natural stronghold for birds. During colder months, you can find a large number of wintering wildfowl across all four reservoirs, including tufted duck, pochard, teal, gadwall, wigeon and shoveler with occasional goldeneye, goosander and smew if it is very cold. Wilstone Reservoir boasts the rare mudwort plant that can be spotted on the mudflats during autumn months as the waters recede. The site attracts breeding common terns which use rafts the Trust has installed and breeding oystercatchers have been recorded here. Between December and February, Marsworth Reservoir is a great place to see overwintering bitterns, as this site has a fantastic reedbed that retains its water to allow the birds to feed throughout the season. There is a heronry on the bank of Wilstone Reservoir and if you take binoculars you should be able to catch a glimpse of these usually solitary birds in large numbers. If you visit the reservoirs during late spring then you may spot a hobby hunting over the water. The hobby is an African migrant bird that is best seen on warm summer days at the end of May when there is plenty of prey around. You can also occasionally hear the call of the cuckoo especially from the back of the reedbed at Wilstone or Marsworth where you should also be able to hear and see reed warblers. Tring Reservoirs are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for a number of reasons including their situation on the lower chalk at the foot of the Chilterns escarpment resulting in diverse communities of plants and animals. Additionally, nationally-important numbers of shoveler are present during winter, together with other wildfowl. Large numbers of sedge and reed warblers breed here and Tring Reservoirs are a fantastic place to spot passage waders too.

Wilstone Reservoir boasts the rare mudwort plant that can be spotted on the mudflats during autumn months as the waters recedes. The site also attracts breeding common terns. There is free parking available.

View of rare UK birds in the famous birdwatching spot. The reserve is a former chalk quarry in Pitstone and is one of the flagship reserves of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, and it has an information centre, education facilities, a café, toilets and a shop.

Monument at the Chiltern Summit, Wendover Woods There is a plaque on this stone which reads The Chiltern Summit. This Cairn at a height of 876 ft (267 m) marks the highest point on the Chiltern Hills, and was erected by the Parish Councils of Aston Clinton and Halton, by the Chiltern Society, the Forestry Commission and the Royal Air Force, Halton, to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second in 1977." This Monument is on a short path leading off the All Ability Trail. https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Haddington_Hill https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monument_at_the_Chiltern_Summit,_Wendover_Woods_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1192382.jpg