Pete's Walks - Buckland Common to Ashley Green (page 4 of 4)
Beyond the wood, the path led diagonally across a very large and pleasant meadow, dotted with dandelions. It then cut across the corner of a pasture before continuing through a field of yellow oil-seed rape. It was about 1.30pm when I reached a kissing-gate on the far side - I now decided to shorten my route slightly. I had thought of crossing the next pasture to reach Wigginton, and then take the path through Tring Park. Instead, I stopped for lunch on a nearby log, then turned sharply left to follow part of the Chiltern Way westwards along the line of Grim's Ditch. This was a very pleasant path, initially beside a line of gorse bushes (on my left) and then through a long thin belt of trees, with more yellow fields either side. It then went through a small beech wood to reach a minor road.
Path through an attractive meadow after Roundhill Wood, heading towards Wigginton
The view from my lunch spot, near Wigginton - I then followed a path to the right of the gorse bushes
The path along Grim's Ditch from Wigginton
The path along Grim's Ditch from Wigginton
The path along Grim's Ditch from Wigginton, passing through a small beech wood (Wick Wood)
On the far side of the road I left the Chiltern Way, forking left on a clear path through a wood called High Scrubs. This path through the wood (where I saw my second Muntjac Deer of the day) was a new one for me, though further on I crossed a path I use as part of my Chiltern Chain Walk. Eventually I reached Shire Lane on the far side of the wood, where I went a short distance to my right before turning left onto a bridleway and continuing through the wood on the other side of the lane, Drayton Wood. Again this was a new path for me, though I've walked other paths in the wood. The path ended at a corner of the wood, where Little Twye Road started. I then just had to follow this lane for about half a mile to return to my start point at Buckland Common. It had been sunnier all afternoon, but there were a few spots of rain as I approached my car.
Path through High Scrubs
Path through High Scrubs
Path through High Scrubs, as it reaches Shire Lane
Shire Lane
Start of the path through Drayton Wood
Looking ahead from the edge of Drayton Wood to Little Twye Road
Little Twye Road
Buckland Common
I wasn't too sure what to expect from this walk, being quite close to both Berkhamsted and Chesham. In fact it was quite pleasant, and the only real intrusion from 'civilisation' was the road noise from the A41 for a while. The start of the long footpath above White Hawridge Bottom was a bit 'bitty' with quite a number of stiles, but otherwise it was a very good section - the mile or so straight through corn fields might have been a bit tedious if it wasn't for the good views all around. It was disappointing that a couple of 'byways' on the map turned out to be effectively a road and a lane, so I had a mile long unbroken road walk - looking on the map, I can now see how I can avoid that in the future though. Though somewhat scant, the ruins of Marlin Chapel were interesting to see (the Rossway estate have kindly put up an information board about them) and I'm glad I made the effort to walk past them.
To see a shorter variation of this route that I did on 29/10/11, click here - Cholesbury and Ashley Green.