Pete's Walks - Kensworth and Ivinghoe Beacon (page 4 of 4)
Eventually the drive met a road (the Hemel Hempstead to Leighton Buzzard road again), where I turned right and entered the village of Dagnall. I went straight on at a crossroads by the rather unusual looking church, then turned left immediately after the village school. This path ran between fences and hedges to reach a lane (I'd crossed it earlier where it is Common Road, Studham). A few yards to the right, a path started on the other side, soon going uphill through the edge of a wood, emerging on top of the hill on Whipsnade Park golf course.
Entering Dagnall
Dagnall church
The path from Dagnall School
The path to Whipsnade Park golf course
The path to Whipsnade Park golf course
I followed the way marks across the golf course, the path soon running through a belt of trees between two fairways. At a path junction I turned left, carefully crossing five or six fairways, the last one immediately before it's green. I then reached the tall wire fence surrounding Whipsnade Zoo, where I turned right beside the fence and then followed it as it soon turned left. A largish group of deer (there are five or six exotic types in this huge open paddock) watched me closely from the other side of the fence, but didn't run off. Later on the fence turned right, and then I came to another junction by a small triangular wood - here I turned left, soon rejoining the zoo fence and following it to Studham Lane, a former lane between Whipsnade and Holywell that has been closed to traffic for many years.
The path across Whipsnade Park golf course
The path beside the zoo fence, just after the golf course
The path beside the zoo fence, just after I turned left at a junction.
I turned left along the lane, following it for several hundred yards. Just before the bollards that block the Whipsnade end of the lane I saw some Toothwort, a rather uncommon parasitic plant (I first saw it here a few weeks ago). A few yards further on I took a path on the left, following a hedgerow uphill, then turning left in the field corner to walk through a meadow and enter the back of the churchyard at Whipsnade. Beyond the church I went right, heading downhill through part of the huge common or green here. Almost opposite the Old Hunter's Lodge I took an old track on the right (once the main way into Whipsnade, before the new road was built in about 1930 to provide access to the zoo). At its end I went a few yards left to the roundabout at Whipsnade Heath, crossed over to the car park and continued on through the wooded heath. The path continued between a fence and a tall hedgerow, then crossed a meadow to reach Common Road, Kensworth, opposite Green End Farm. I turned right, and followed the road gently downhill back to my home.
The old lane between Holywell and Whipsnade ("Studham Lane" on the OS map)
The start of the path from Studham Lane to Whipsnade church
Approaching Whipsnade church
Looking towards Whipsnade Heath from Whipsnade
The old lane (before the 1930's this would have been the way into Whipsnade from Kensworth or Dunstable)
Whipsnade Heath
The path from Whipsnade Heath to Kensworth
I was rather surprised that it was about 18 months since I last did this walk. Now that I am back at work, I guess I just don't get to do my favourite local walks so often. It's a nice varied route, with some good views and one or two ups and downs. Obviously it wasn't at its best today, with the weather remaining grey and overcast almost all the way. But I still enjoyed it, and am grateful to have such a good walk literally on my doorstep.