Pete's Walks- Lilley to Barton-le-Clay 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.
I turned left immediately before a crossing hedgerow by some cottages and farm buildings. After a few hundred yards a waymark post indicated where the bridleway veered a few yards right to follow a drive along an avenue of trees. At the end of this avenue I reached a crossroads of sorts, where I turned right onto a bridleway. There was a field boundary on my right initially, then in the next field I had a fence to my left. After reaching a field corner and a crossing path, I continued straight on, now with a hedge on my left.
The bridleway continuing from Little Offley
The bridleway continuing from Little Offley
The bridleway after I turned right near Little Offley
The bridleway after I turned right near Little Offley
The bridleway after I turned right near Little Offley
The bridleway after I turned right near Little Offley
The bridleway after I turned right near Little Offley, approaching Lilleyhoo Lane (where the crossing hedgerow is)
Eventually I reached Lillyhoo Lane, where I turned right. I then turned left along a path climbing gently uphill beside a huge corn field on my left. The path then dropped much more steeply down the other side of the valley. In the field corner at the bottom of the slope I went through a gate and crossed a large paddock, aiming for a gate halfway along the hedge on the far side. I then crossed another smaller paddock to another gate and a short alley leading to the road through Lilley, opposite the church. It was then just a short distance to the right to return to where I'd started.
Lillyhoo Lane
The footpath from Lillyhoo Lane to Lilley
The footpath from Lillyhoo Lane to Lilley
The footpath from Lillyhoo Lane to Lilley - you can see it's about to drop steeply. The road in the distance is the A505, between Luton and Hitchin
The footpath from Lillyhoo Lane to Lilley
The footpath from Lillyhoo Lane to Lilley, crossing the large paddock
Approaching Lilley
Lilley church
I've always really enjoyed this walk, and today was no exception. It's a most unusual walk for the Chilterns, in that throughout its 14.5 miles it doesn't go through a single wood (though it passes three or four). I think the reason I like it so much is that there are three good sections where it goes over chalk downland with extensive views - firstly Warden and Galley Hills, then the Barton Hills and finally the Pegsdon Hills and Deacon Hill. Any one of these three sections would be the highlight of most other walks in the Chilterns. Much of the rest of the route follows the edges of arable fields, but in most cases even these sections had pleasant views of attractive countryside. It was a shame that after some early brightness the skies became overcast and grey, but that hardly detracted at all from the pleasure of the walk.