Pete's Walks- Barton and Deacon Hill (page 2 of 3)
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 crossed the road and started off on the long path that climbs up the Pegsdon Hills (it had taken me about an hour to get here, where the walk starts to get more interesting). After a while, the path was running beside a valley called Barn Hole, which forms a deep cleft in the hillside. Looking left across Barn Hole I could see Deacon Hill, which I would soon be visiting - from here I could see the lines on its hillside that are the remains of 'lynchets' or ancient field terraces. It was a long plod up the hill, but I didn't mind at all because the surroundings were so pleasant, even on this grey November day.
The start of the path up Pegsdon Hill
The path up Pegsdon Hill, approaching Barn Hole
Looking left to Deacon Hill
Barn Hole
The path up Pegsdon Hill, beside the valley called Barn Hole
Near the top of Pegsdon Hill
At the top of the hill, I followed the fence on my left round to the left and went through a gate, with a long view down Barn Hole in front of me. A clear path carried on, initially close to the fence now on my right, but soon moving away from it and dropping quite steeply for a short while at the top of a short side valley that joins Barn Hole. The climb back up the other side was much more gentle, and all this while I was compensated for any physical exertion by the far-reaching views to my left over parts of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The views were obviously nowhere near their best today, but they were still good. The path went through a gate and continued past a few beech trees, continuing on along the top of the hillside to reach the OS Column on top of Deacon Hill.
I have to say the description in the previous two paragraphs really does not do justice to what is one of my very favourite paths in all of the Chilterns. I have just found out that Deacon Hill and the Pegsdon Hills were the inspiration for John Bunyan's "Delectable Mountains" in his epic Pilgrim's Progress - mountains they might not be, but delectable they most certainly are. To see them in more favourable conditions, when I walked in the opposite direction at the end of May 2015, see here.
Looking north, along Barn Hole
The path to Deacon Hill, starting from above the end of Barn Hole
The path to Deacon Hill, where it drops steeply for a short while
The path to Deacon Hill
The path to Deacon Hill
The path to Deacon Hill
Looking northeast from the OS column on Deacon Hill
Just as I took some photos from the top of Deacon Hill, it started to rain. One reason I'd chosen this fairly local walk today, was that I knew I could finish it about 2pm and rain was forecast for 4pm - so I wasn't best pleased (yet again) with the forecasters on the BBC Weather web site, as it was now only 11.55am. Anyway, I turned right, passing through a small area of bushes and hollows in the ground, then going down the steep slope on the south-eastern side of the hill to reach a farm gate in a hedgerow. I then turned right along a hedge-lined track, which the OS map indicates is part of the ancient Icknield Way. It was almost imperceptibly uphill but after a mile or so it brought me to a path crossroads by a gate on the right that was very close to where I'd been at the end of Barn Hole a while earlier.
The path down from Deacon Hill
Looking southeast from the same point
The Icknield Way
The Icknield Way
The Icknield Way