Pete's Walks - The Lee and Little Missenden (page 3 of 3)
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 along the road, but very soon turned left on a path along the drive to Ardlows Farm. As this reached the farmyard, the path went right through a white gate, continuing past the farm and then turning left along the far side of a hedgerow. The path followed the hedge as it turned right and then left, and continued beside it to reach Atkins Wood. I followed the path through the wood, close to its edge on my left, for about a hundred yards, then went half-right at a path junction. The new path dropped downhill through the wood to reach a valley bottom, where I went through a metal kissing-gate on the left and turned right onto a broad bridleway. This had Atkins Wood on the left for a while, then had hedges of tall trees for a while. Beyond this I continued down a lane between stout hedges, then turned right along Nags Head Lane for about a quarter of a mile to reach the entrance to Nairdwood Farm on my left.
The drive to Andlows Farm
The path from Andlows Farm to Atkins Wood
Atkins Wood
Atkins Wood, after I turned right
The bridleway from Atkins Wood
The bridleway from Atkins Wood
The lane from Sedges Farm
Nags Head Lane
A footpath started from the left of the entrance to Nairdwood Farm, following a hedge on the right initially and then soon going diagonally, half-right, across a field to reach Sandwich Wood. It was only a short distance through the wood, the path then continuing for a few hundred yards between fences and hedges, with mainly sheep pastures to my right. The path then ran across the front of the Full Moon pub in Little Kingshill to reach a road. I crossed over and took a path on the other side, which was soon following the right edge of a playing field. At the far side of the playing field, I turned left, and started a lengthy section along another road in Kingshill (it was quite busy with parents collecting their children from at least two different schools here).
The start of the path from Nairdwood Farm)
The path from Nairdwood Farm, approaching Sandwich Wood
Sandwich Wood
The path from Sandwich Wood to Little Kingshill
The path from Sandwich Wood to Little Kingshill
The road through Little Kingshill
After about half a mile I took a footpath on the right (where the road turned left, just after I passed the 'Little Kingshill' sign as I left the village). After a hundred yards or so the path entered a huge arable field - I was now following a very gently descending ridge, with the Misbourne valley to my left and a smaller valley to my right. This was where I'd seen something close to a 'cloud inversion' this morning, where I was almost above a sea of fog. After several hundred yards, the path went through a hedgerow, going straight on across part of another large arable field to a hedge corner, where I continued gently downhill beside a hedge on my left. In the next field corner, pretty much at the bottom of the slope, I went straight on over a hedge-lined bridleway (Kingstreet Lane), then went slightly left across a large paddock or meadow to reach a lane on the edge of Little Missenden. I turned right to follow the lane for about a quarter of a mile to reach the village church and my parked car.
Near the start of the path from Little Kingshill to Little Missenden
The path from Little Kingshill to Little Missenden (this is where I'd seen what was a close to a 'cloud inversion' this morning)
The path from Little Kingshill to Little Missenden
The path from Little Kingshill to Little Missenden
Approaching Little Missenden
Little Missenden church
I enjoyed this walk more than than the other walks on the Chiltern Heritage Trail so far. The long road walk through Little Kingshill and the short stretch through Great Missenden weren't too exciting, but the rest of the route was very pleasant, with a nice mixture of woods and fields, a few more ups and downs than the other walks, and many pleasant rural views. Much of it was less familiar to me than some streches of the other walks, in fact the short section from Prestwood to Great Missenden I'd only walked once before, when I did the Chiltern Heritage Trail in 2006. It was about 3.40pm when I got back to my car, and the golden sunshine of the late afternoon had certainly enhanced the Autumn colours of the trees, which meant I was seeing the many fine views at close to their best.