Pete's Walks- Coombe Hill and the Hampdens (page 1 of 5)

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.

Google map of the walk

I did this circular walk of about 12.5 miles on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017. It was a repeat of my Coombe Hill and the Hampdens walk (Walk 12 of the Chiltern Chain Walk, anti-clockwise). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a very grey day - I don't think I have ever walked under such consistently dark grey skies before - so I'm afraid my photos are all a bit dismal (of course, the skies brightened up considerably as I drove home after the walk!).

I parked at the Coombe Hill car park (grid reference SP 852063), and started walking at roughly 9.45am. I went through the gate by the entrance to the car park and turned left, following a hedge and fence line with an open area of grass and bushes to my right. After a few hundred yards I turned left through a metal kissing-gate, joining the route of the Ridgeway national trail which I would now be following as far as Whiteleaf Hill. The path ran through a beech wood on top of Lodge Hill, with fields close by on my left. When I reached a lane (the one to the car park) I turned right, downhill, for about a hundred yards, then took a path on the left. The Ridgeway now continued southwards through Linton's Wood and Goodmerhill Wood for about half a mile (there were plenty of fingerposts and white acorns signs to guide me at various minor path junctions, but the general rule was 'straight on'). It then turned right down a clear track, which dropped quite steeply downhill. After crossing a bridleway, the path left the wood and ran through a tree belt to reach a minor road at Buckmoorend.

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The start of the path from the Coombe Hill car park

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The Ridgeway on Lodge Hill

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The short road walk on Lodge Hill

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The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood

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The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood

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The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood

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The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood, after it turns right

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The Ridgeway descending to Buckmoorend

I crossed the road and continued along a footpath that crossed the grounds and drive of Chequers, the Prime Minister's country house, which was over to my right. The path then continued through a field of young green corn to reach the edge of Maple Wood, where it turned right and followed the edge of the wood for several hundred yards.

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The Ridgeway crossing the grounds surrounding Chequers

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The Ridgeway approaching Maple Wood

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The Ridgeway running alongside Maple Wood

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Chequers and Coombe Hill

The path, now named Cradle Footpath on the OS map, then ran across a large grassy field to a gate on the far side, beyond which it continued through an area of grass and bushes, passing the end of a wooded valley on my right. By a waymark post I forked right, temporarily diverting from the Ridgeway, to follow a path through bushes and then up a small grass slope to the top of Chequers Knap, where I enjoyed some far-reaching views over the Vale of Aylesbury.

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The Cradle footpath

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The Cradle footpath

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Where I diverted right to the top of Chequers Knap, before returning to the Ridgeway

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The view over the Vale of Aylesbury from Chequers Knap