Pete's Walks - Four Hills walk (page 6 of 6)
I said goodbye to the lady as I went over a stile on the right of the lane and headed diagonally across an empty paddock, going uphill. Over a stile in the far corner, I crossed a bridleway and went through a gate, continuing uphill through bushes (this path is not shown on the OS map, but it's an Open Access area). I emerged from the bushes at a tumulus, or ancient burial mound, at the eastern end of Bacombe Hill (you can read about the tumulus here). After taking in the views, over Wendover to Wendover Woods and out across the Vale of Aylesbury, I turned left and followed a path along the top of the hill (which is basically a long ridge extending eastwards from Coombe Hill). The Ridgeway national trail was to my right, slightly further down the hill, but eventually the two paths merged and continued westwards to Coombe Hill.
The path across the paddock on the southern side of Bacombe Hill (yet again my camera is lying about how steep it is)
The path up to the tumulus on Bacombe Hill
View over Wendover and Halton, from the Tumulus on Bacombe Hill
The path from the tumulus, heading west to Combe Hill
The path from the tumulus, heading west to Combe Hill
Looking back over Wendover
The Ridgeway on Bacombe Hill
The Ridgeway continuing towards Coombe Hill
The monument on Coombe Hill
On reaching the tall monument on Coombe Hill (a memorial to the men of Buckinghamshire who died in the Boer War), I again stopped to admire the extensive views over the Vale of Aylesbury. It was still a glorious day and there seemed to be more people here than I'd ever seen before. I then turned right, and walked along a very broad band of grass. At its end a path led through some trees, then continued across an area of grass and bushes to take me back to the car park where I'd started.
The Vale of Aylesbury from Coombe Hill
Beacon Hill from Coombe Hill (you can see the path through the corn field near the start of the route)
The path to the car park from the monument
Approaching the car park for Coombe Hill
As the forecast had been for such a glorious day, and as I thought it might possibly the last one for some time, I had decided to make the most of it and do one of my all-time favourite walks - I wasn't disappointed! There were extensive views from all the four hills (well, I got a view from one point on the wooded Pulpit Hill!) and the walk had a nice mix of woods and fields, with plenty of ups and downs to add further variety. The hamlets of Dunsmore, Little Hampden and Parslow's Hillock added interest to the route. There was lots of historic interest too (barrows and tumuli, Hampden House, I touched on another section of Grim's Ditch at one point), and it was a decent day for wildlife (deer, butterflies and, of course, several Red Kites).