Pete's Walks- Lilley to Barton-le-Clay walk (page 4 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.
I turned right along the lane, and then turned left when it ended at a T-junction . This road soon left Hexton, and then turned right. After several hundred yards I reached a former mill, where the lane ended but a bridleway continued on with a very tall hedge of trees on the right. At a bridleway junction in the field corner I turned right, following a hedge on my right again which soon turned slightly left. The bridleway then continued along a drive, with farms on either side, and at its end I turned right along a road to reach Pegsdon.
Hexton
Mill Lane, Hexton
The bridleway continuing from the old mill
The bridleway continuing to Pegsdon (Deacon Hill is on the left)
Looking left from the same spot as the previous photo. On the skyline in the centre is the Knocking Knoll burial mound, further right is the Knocking Hoe nature reserve where about a month ago I saw Burnt-tip Orchids and Pasqueflowers
The drive at Pegsdon going past Great End Farm and Bury Farm
Pegsdon with the Pegsdon Hills beyond, from the road
Just after passing a junction where a road went left, I turned right along a short 'No through Road' (actually it was more or less straight on) and at its end went over a narrow verge and crossed a road. Through a gate a footpath started to climb the Pegsdon Hills. It started by rising fairly gently through a large field of rough grass (I spotted a couple of Pyramidal Orchids amongst the other flowers here) to reach a gate. Just beyond this I passed a small group of cattle, then the path steepened briefly as it passed through an area of scrub. All the time I had views to my left towards Deacon Hill, and I now had the steep-sided valley of Barn Hole immediately to my left. After another gate, the path levelled off, approaching the top of the hill beside a hedge on my left with some unusual breed of sheep half-hidden in the long grass of the meadow on the right. When I reached a gate in the hedge, I went through it to a bench, where I stopped for my lunch and admired the view along Barn Hole to the flat lands beyond (the skies had now turned rather grey, so the views weren't at their best).
The start of the footpath up Pegsdon Hill
Looking left to Deacon Hill
The path up Pegsdon Hills
The path up Pegsdon Hills, with Barn Hole on the left
Approaching the top of Pegsdon Hills
The view from my favourite lunch-spot in the Chilterns - looking along Barn Hole to the flat lands of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire