If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
I did this 15 mile circular walk on Saturday, 5th May 2012. It was yet another repeat of one of my regular long walks from my home in Kensworth, although rather surprisingly it was about 18 months since I had last done walked to Ivinghoe Beacon and back
I started walking about 10.15am, following the Whipsnade Road out of Kensworth and then taking a path on the left. This crossed a very large meadow and then ran along a track on the edge of a smaller meadow, to reach Dovehouse Lane. I followed the lane rightwards, dropping gently down into a small valley where the lane terminated on Buckwood Lane. A few yards to the right, a path started on the other side. Within yards I came to a path junction where I kept left, following a path uphill with garden fences on my right. I stayed on this path along the edge of Holywell, which then continued between fences to reach a small wood (where I heard and then saw a Buzzard). On the far side of the wood I came down to the road from Whipsnade Heath to Studham.
The path from Kensworth, beside the road to Whipsnade
The path from the Whipsnade road to Dovehouse Lane
Dovehouse Lane
The path along the edge of Holywell
Start of the path from Holywell to Studham
I went a few yards left and then took a path on the other side of the road, initially following a right-hand hedge uphill. At a gap in the hedge I glimpsed Studham church about quarter of a mile away. I carried straight on along the path until it brought me to a road in Studham. Here I turned right, but then immediately followed the road as it went left (at a junction with Church Lane), leaving the village and descending into another valley. In the valley bottom I took a path going half-right, following tractor tracks uphill. I then crossed Common Road, Studham, and took a bridleway that ran along a gravel drive and then continued alongside a hedgerow on my left. After some distance the bridleway passed through Ravensdell Wood. Just after this, as I started to drop into the Gade Valley, I spotted a young Fallow buck in a broad hedge on my left.
Approaching Studham
The path between Valley Road and Common Road, Studham
The bridleway from Studham to the Gade Valley and Hudnall. approaching Ravensdell Wood
Approaching the Gade Valley
The bridleway followed the right edge of a huge yellow field of oil-seed rape as it descended into the Gade Valley, with pleasant views along the valley in either direction. Across the road in the bottom of the valley (the Hemel Hempstead to Leighton Buzzard road), I followed a path beside a left-hand hedge, soon climbing back up the other side of the valley. At the top of the hill, on the edge of Hudnall, I took a path going half-right, passing a solitary tree (I've currently got a wintry photograph of this tree and the path as the 'desktop' on my PC at work) and crossing a huge field of young green corn. I then crossed a couple of empty sheep pastures to reach the drive to Little Gaddesden Church.
The bridleway across the Gade Valley, between Studham and Hudnall
Looking northwest along the Gade Valley towards Galley Hill
Looking southeast along the Gade Valley towards Great Gaddesden
The bridleway continuing up the other side of the valley towards Hudnall
Start of the path from Hudnall to Little Gaddesden
The path to Little Gaddesden