Pete's Walks - Chiltern Heritage Trail
About the Chiltern Heritage Trail
The Chiltern Heritage Trail Millennium walking route, to give it its full title, is a 52-mile circular walk through a section of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire. It was created by Chiltern District Council in 2000, as part of their Millennium celebrations. It visits the towns of Chesham and Amersham and passes through all fourteen parishes within the District. The walk is set amongst the fields and woods of the beautiful rolling Chiltern Hills, and visits numerous picturesque villages, many of which have points of historic interest.
As part of Chiltern District Council’s Millennium celebrations, various artworks were created and located at various points along the route. These included a mosaic, a new Lych gate for a church, wooden and metal seats, and other carvings. Sadly, some of these no longer seemed to be present when I did my walk in September 2006.
UPDATE: The Chiltern Heritage Trail has now been taken over by the Chiltern Society, who have published a new guidebook (it can be bought here) which shows that they have made a few minor alterations to the route. I have added notes in these pages where the route I walked in 2006 differs from the current route. I walked the Chiltern Heritage Trail again in Autumn 2017 following the modified route and have written journals for it in both the clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.
Typical Chiltern scenery, between Chartridge and Asheridge (Day 6)
The area covered by the Chiltern Heritage Trail is on the OS Explorer maps 172 and 181, although the route is not shown as a long-distance path (I know some local maps have recently been re-published, so it may now be on the maps).
The Chiltern Heritage Trail can be walked in either a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction (it is waymarked in both directions), and can be started and finished on any point of its circular route. However, the guide book starts and finishes the walk in the centre of Chesham, following the route in a clockwise direction.
Click here to see a very rough map of the Chiltern Heritage Trail (but only if you have already read my disclaimer and notes regarding maps).
Note: I have numbered each photograph (in red) and inserted the same number in the text to show where in the walk the photo was taken.