Pete's Walks- Great Kimble and Bacombe (page 4 of 4)
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.
Having stopped to eat my packed lunch at the monument, admiring the views, I turned left and continued along the Ridgeway, now with a steep drop on my right with a view towards Beacon Hill, and bushes on my left. On reaching a wood, I went a few yards left then entered the wood at a metal kissing-gate. The Ridgeway continued through the wood, but close to a field to my left. On reaching a minor road (going to the Coombe Hill car park to my left), I followed it right for a couple of hundred yards and then the Ridgeway continued through more woodland on the other side - first through Linton's Wood and then Goodmerhill Wood. There were a number of path junctions, but the route of the Ridgeway was always clearly shown by fingerposts or white acorn signs. Eventually it turned right and followed a track downhill to reach a road at the hamlet of Buckmoorend (I used the parallel permissive path for walkers only that starts near the bottom of the slope).
The Ridgeway, continuing from the monument
The Ridgeway in the wood on Lodge Hill
The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood
The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood
The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood - this is just after it turns right and starts to descend to Buckmoorend
The Ridgeway descending to Buckmoorend
Across the road, the Ridgeway took a path that crossed the grounds of Chequers, crossing the drive close to its start, and continuing on to reach Maple Wood. Here it turned right and followed the edge of the wood for some distance, with views to my right towards Chequers and Coombe Hill. At the end of the wood, I went through a gate and continued across a field. After another gate, the Ridgeway (now on a section curiously named Cradle Footpath on the OS map) followed a fence on the right as it passed the head of a small valley. I soon passed under the shelter of some trees, then the rather chalky path crossed an open area of scrubland. Here I finally left the Ridgeway and took a path on the right that ran just left of the small hillock called Chequers Knap (looking on the OS map, the actual public footpath starts some way before I turned right but this is Open access land anyway). Beyond the hillock the path continued downhill, bearing slightly left to reach a gate in a fence corner. I then just had to turn right and follow the bridleway I'd started on, back downhill to the layby where I'd parked my car.
The Ridgeway crossing the grounds of Chequers
A close-up shot of Chequers (it's got a new occupier since I was last here!)
The Ridgeway crossing the grounds of Chequers
The Ridgeway continuing past Maple Wood
I ALWAYS take this shot of Chequers and Coombe Hill, every time I walk here - you can see the route of the Ridgeway going right from the Monument, in front of the bushes and trees at the top of the steep slope
This part of the Ridgeway is name Cradle Footpath on the OS map, but I don't know why
Further along Cradle Footpath (this is taken from a gate)
The path beside Chequers Knap, after I turned right from the Ridgeway
The path continuing downhill
Back on the bridleway down to Great Kimble
This was a very pleasant walk on a splendid September day. Ideally I should have started at Coombe Hill so as not to need to retrace my steps for a short distance at the end of the walk, but that really didn't matter (and I was probably right about the car park being full at Coombe Hill). Even though the route was entirely on paths I'd walked many times before (apart from the path from the pub at Cadsden, which I'd only walked once before) I didn't get at all bored with it, and really enjoyed seeing the lovely countryside in this part of the Chilterns on such a wonderful early Autumn day.