Pete's Walks- Kensworth and Ivinghoe Beacon (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.
The path now crossed four or five fairways of the golf course - surprisingly for 3pm on a Saturday there weren't too many people playing and I didn't have to wait for any golfers to take their shots. The last fairway was crossed just in front of the green (for non-golfers, that's one of those nicely mown bits with a flag in it!) and then the path reached the tall wire fence of Whipsnade Zoo. The fence and path soon went left at a corner, and then there was a stretch of about a third of a mile before they turned right. After another three or four hundred yards I reached a bridleway junction (beside a small triangle of woodland on my left) where I went left. I was soon following the zoo fence once more (I saw a couple of Chinese Water Deer but none of the Wallabies that are usually visible behind the fence here), and continued alongside until it reached the old lane between Holywell and Whipsnade.
Bluebells beside the path across Whipsnade Golf Course (after I turned left)
The path continuing across Whipsnade Golf Course
The path continuing beside the Whipsnade Zoo fence
The path continuing beside the Whipsnade Zoo fence
The path continuing beside the Whipsnade Zoo fence (about to pass the small triangle of wood)
The path continuing beside the Whipsnade Zoo fence (after I turned left)
I turned left along the old lane, heading towards Whipsnade. As I walked along here I remembered a couple of things, firstly that I'd once seen some Toothwort along here (it's a parasitic plant that lives off the roots of Hazel, Elm, Field Maple and other trees) and secondly I'd seen someone post some photos of Toothwort on the internet recently. Figuring it must be the right time of year to see it, I looked and found it exactly in the same spot I'd seen it a few years ago. As I'd only seen it that one time before, I was pretty pleased at seeing it again.
Just after passing a couple of bollards that block the former lane to traffic near its Whipsnade end, I turned right onto a footpath that followed the left edge of a ploughed field. In the field corner I went through a gate and then turned left though an open gate to follow the right edge of a meadow to reach Whipsnade church. I walked round to the left of the church to reach the church gate, and then turned right along a path through the grass of part of the large green at Whipsnade. The path was soon dropping gently downhill, aiming to reach the road through the village opposite to the Old Hunter's Lodge, a large pub and restaurant.
The old lane from Holywell to Whipsnade
The path from the old lane to Whipsnade church
Approaching Whipsnade church
The path from Whipsnade church after I turned right, looking towards the Old Hunter's Lodge and Whipsnade Heath
I turned right along the road, but only for a few yards before turning right (by a gate that can be closed across the road) along another former lane - this seemed to have been cleared of much vegetation since I last came this way. As I walked own here I saw a gentleman with a camera, notebook and pen, studying something beside the old lane, and I couldn't resist stopping and asking if he was looking for anything in particular. It turned out he was looking for Toothwort and had already seen almost 100 spikes of it - there were 5 or 6 just where he stood! We then had a good chat about wildlife and wildflowers in particular - he told me that was looking for Toothwort because there were records of it being found in Whipsnade dating back to 1795, which I thought was very interesting.
At the end of the old lane (at a road T-junction - the continuation of the old lane going straight on ahead of me, Buckwood Lane, goes to Markyate and I'd crossed it near the start of this walk) I went a few yards left to a roundabout where I turned right. After a few yards I crossed the road and walked through the small car park at Whipsnade Heath. A path continued from the car park through the wooded heath, and then continued between a fence and a hedge before crossing a meadow to reach Common Road, Kensworth, opposite Green End Farm. I then just had to turn right and follow the road back to my home.
The old lane that is the former continuation of Buckwood Lane (this was the main way into Whipsnade before the new road was built to provide better access to the Zoo in about 1930)
Whipsnade Heath
Whipsnade Heath
The path continuing from Whipsnade Heath to Kensworth
The path continuing from Whipsnade Heath to Kensworth
Common Road, Kensworth
I had really enjoyed the walk, more than I'd expected to. I wasn't expecting too much from it, simply because I'd done it so many times before, but not having done it for almost five years (and not having done many other long local walks either in the intervening years) it didn't seem over-familiar to me. In fact it reminded me that this area can be as attractive as almost anywhere else in the Chilterns, and that I am very lucky to have such fine countryside right on my doorstep.