Pete's Walks - Hambleden, Medmenham, Colstrope (page 1 of 6)
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.
NOTE: You now have to pay to use the car park in Hambleden. I usually manage to park along the village street to the west of the church (looking at the church from the village centre, take the street on the left and follow it round to the right).
I did this circular walk of about 11.1 miles on Monday, 7th April 2025. It was a shortened version of my Hambleden, Medmenham, Colstrope, Fawley route, walked anti-clockwise. I shortened the route by simply following the Chiltern Way south down the Hambleden valley from Colstrope, instead of following a loop out to Fawley.
I parked in the street to the west of Hambleden church (grid reference SU 785866), and started walking at roughly 10:25am. I walked back to the village centre, passed the church on my left, then went straight ahead at a road junction and turned right into the village car park. From the far side of the car park I turned left along a playing field, turning right for a few yards when I reached a hedge, then going through a gap in the hedge (by some seats) and turning right along a track. After about a quarter of a mile I reached a track junction where I turned left. The track soon ended, but the footpath turned right to run between a fence and a hedge, with green fields either side. On then entering North Cot Wood I quickly came to a path junction, where I continued uphill through the wood rather than take the path leaving the wood on my right. It wasn't too steep through the wood, and after about a quarter of a mile the path ended at a lane. A path continued on the other side. I soon came to a path junction, where another path went right along a track, where I went straight on. The path soon turned right (south) and followed the edge of Chalkpit Wood on my right for a few hundred yards The path then turned left and entered a very large sheep pasture, going straight on along its left edge. There were some nice views to my right here, over the Thames valley.
Hambleden church
The path from the car park across the sports field (I aimed for the gap in the hedge by some seats)
The track out of Hambleden
The track after I turned left
The path after it turns right from the end of the track, southwards
View back to Hambleden, from where I reached North Cot Wood
The path heading up through North Cot Wood
The path heading up through North Cot Wood
The path through North Cot Wood, shortly before reaching a lane
The path on the other side of the lane (I went straight on, not joining the track)
The path on the other side of the lane, running beside Chalkpit Wood
The path after it turns left
The path running along the edge of a large sheep pasture
View right from the large sheep pasture
Eventually the path reached Binfields Wood, where it turned right to head slightly east of south. At one point I almost went wrong, where a path started to drop downhill but the footpath went right (there was a waymark here). After a while the path started to drop steeply (the OS map names this Killdown Bank) and another path came in from my right (I'd have come that way if I'd turned right at the path junction just inside North Cot Wood). At the bottom of the slope I reached a main road, where I crossed over and turned left.The road soon brought me to a junction by the Dog And Badger pub in Medmenham.
The path continuing through Binfields Wood
The path continuing through Binfields Wood
View out from Binfields Wood
The path continuing through Binfields Wood
The path descending Killdown Bank
The path descending Killdown Bank
The road to Medmenham
Medmenham church
I turned left at the road junction, but then immediately took a footpath on the right which climbed uphill through another wood. At the top of the slope the path turned slightly right. There was an information board about an iron-age hill fort here, but it was difficult to really make anything out. A short way further on the path reached a track, where it turned left, crossed a driveway, and soon ended at a private road or drive, where I turned right.
Near the start of the path from by the road junction
Further along the same path (the short steep bit)
The path as it passes through beech trees in the hillfort
The path as it passes through the hillfort
