Pete's Walks - Shortened version of Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail (page 4 of 5)
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 edge of the common. In a corner the path went straight on, back into the trees and soon bearing very slightly left. The route then ran through a more open area of bushes and occasional trees, with a valley dropping down to my left - again, I just had to follow the waymarks. The path then re-entered the trees and turned left, now following the southwest edge of Northchurch Common with fields just a few feet to my right. The path dropped down into a valley and rose a short distance up the other side before levelling out, still staying lose to the fields on my right. It then dropped downhill into another small valley, where I turned left along a drive (coming from a property named "Goreseside's" on the OS map)
Northchurch Common
Northchurch Common
Northchurch Common
Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
I followed the drive gently uphill for three or four hundred yards, then took a short bridleway on the right that quickly brought me to the Ringshall to Northchurch road. I soon kept left at a bridleway junction, and then stopped to sit on a convenient tree stump to eat my packed lunch. The bridleway took me to the drive to Northchurch Farm, where I turned left and took a path that went past the farm and then continued across what I think is a Polo field (another path went round two sides of this). On the far side, I went a few yards left and turned right, continuing between a hedge and a wooden fence on my right. Over a stile, the path continued down a track which soon turned left and then right, carrying on for another straight half mile, initially beside a huge field of flax on my left. On finally reaching a field corner, the path continued half-left across a meadow to reach Coldharbour Farm.
The drive from "Gorseside's)"
The short path after I turned right from the drive
The path across the road, heading to Northchurch Farm
The path across the road, heading to Northchurch Farm
The path across what I think is a Polo pitch
View ahead (the path follows the edge of the field between the hedge and the fence)
The path continuing towards Coldharbour Farm (the blue in the field is Flax
The path continuing towards Coldharbour Farm
Approaching Coldharbour Farm