Pete's Walks- Alternative Ashridge walk (page 6 of 6)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
This next section of the route used to be a little difficult to describe, but it's now easy to follow as there are waymarks for 'The Battle of Berkhamsted Common Anniversary Walk' (see here and here for information). A short distance into the trees I came to a fork, where I kept right (following a waymark), the path soon becoming quite muddy. Further on the path turned half-left to pass through a small area of beech trees, on the other side of which another waymark indicated where the path continued through more trees. The path then reached an open area of bracken, where it turned slightly right. When I reached a path T-junction I turned left (another waymark), and followed the path for several hundred yards through the woods until I reached a surfaced drive (close to Woodyard Cottages, to the right).
The start of the path through Berkhampstead Common
The path through Berkhampstead Common
The path through Berkhampstead Common
The path through Berkhampstead Common
The path through Berkhampstead Common
The path through Berkhampstead Common
The path through Berkhampstead Common, crossing the track by Woodyard Cottages (to the right)
The path continued through the trees across the drive - there was another brief shower now, the fourth there'd been. The path then ended at a junction with a bridleway, where I went left and continued with a large meadow or pasture (enclosed by woods on all sides) over a fence to the right. Beyond the meadow, the bridleway continued through more woods to reach the Ringshall-Northchurch road (I was pleased to see that the small car park here had been opened again).
The path continuing past Woodyard Cottages (there was another brief heavy shower here)
The bridleway past the large pasture
The bridleway continuing past Thunderdell Wood
I crossed the road and continued along a bridleway on the other side, still in the woods of Ashridge. After a few hundred yards I reached a junction where a footpath crossed the bridleway, where I turned right (I think 'The Battle of Berkhamsted Common Anniversary Walk' went straight on here, but I'm not sure). I then simply followed this broad path for several hundred yards back to the drive to the Monument and my parked car.
The bridleway after re-crossing the Ringshall-Northchurch road
The bridleway after re-crossing the Ringshall-Northchurch road
The footpath back to the drive to the Bridgewater Monument
The footpath back to the drive to the Bridgewater Monument
The footpath back to the drive to the Bridgewater Monument
Despite the afternoon showers, I really enjoyed this walk. It is one of those routes that I'd got a bit bored with because I'd walked them so often, but not having walked it for several years I was once more able to appreciate how good it is. Apart from Aldbury and the small estate of houses near Northall it hardly visits 'civilisation' at all, to the extent that there are even very few sections of field paths. It is largely in woods, heaths or commons, or on chalk downland, such as at Ivinghoe Beacon and Pitstone Hill. It's not the hilliest of routes, but there are more than enough ups and downs to keep it interesting. My only reservation about recommending this route had been the slight difficulty in finding the way from near Frithsden Beeches, but the waymarks for 'The Battle of Berkhamsted Common Anniversary Walk' have conveniently solved that problem.