Pete's Walks - Old Amersham and Beaconsfield (page 4 of 4)
I continued through Hodgemoor Woods until I reached Botterells Lane. Across this, a path led across a meadow and continued northwards along a farm track, soon dropping downhill to reach Upper Bottom House Farm. Across the lane here and through the farmyard, a path led uphill beside an intermittent row of trees to a redundant stile (I always used to go over these just for a bit of fun, but nowadays I need to take care of my dodgy knees), before bearing slightly left to reach a hedgerow near the top of the hill.
The path going northeast just inside the edge of Hodgemoor Woods
The path going northeast just inside the edge of Hodgemoor Woods
The path across Botterells Lane
The path to Upper Bottom House Farm
The path to Upper Bottom House Farm
The path going north from Upper Bottom House Farm
A few yards to the right, the path passed through the hedgerow and crossed a field of young green corn, and then followed the edge of Day's Wood (the map shows the path a little further left, reaching the next corner of the wood). Shortly beyond the wood, the path switched to the right of a hedgerow, with a view to the right over the Misbourne valley towards Amersham. When the hedge turned left the path continued across the field to another hedge corner, then cut across another green field to reach Rodger's Wood.
The path continuing towards Day's Wood
The path beside Day's Wood (the OS map shows the path further left)
The path between Day's Wood and Rodger's Wood
The path between Day's Wood and Rodger's Wood
Approaching Rodger's Wood
The path continued through a corner of Rodger's Wood, then gradually dropped downhill through a field of yellow oil-seed rape, with a nice view over Amersham Old Town ahead. The path continued gently downhill through yet another green corn field, before turning left in a large meadow and passing under the A413 to return to Amersham Old Town. The car park was then just a short distance to my left.
Rodger's Wood
The path from Rodger's Wood to Amersham Old Town
The path from Rodger's Wood to Amersham Old Town
Approaching Amersham Old Town
This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite walks, and I'm sure I'll do it again sometime. It goes through some very pleasant countryside, with a good mixture of woodland walking and field paths. It's pleasantly up and down, without there being any big hills anywhere on the route. The weakest part of the route is the section along the narrow Fagnall Lane, but doing the walk this way round at least that is all downhill and so over quite quickly. The only other slight drawback is that it is a bit shorter than most walks I do, but I could remedy that by doing the original route rather than the shorter 'Alternative 1'. Another advantage of doing the walk anti-clockwise is that it ends with the section from Upper Bottom House Farm to Amersham Old Town, which I always enjoy - I did it just a few weeks ago, but I still really enjoyed doing it again today.