Pete's Walks - Chenies and Ley Hill (page 5 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 went a short way left along the lane, then took a footpath on the other side that continued through the delightful Chess Valley. The path initially ran between wooden fences, then followed the left edge of a small meadow of rough grass (by the Frogmore Meadows nature reserve). After passing through a small wood, the path continued between a wire fence and a hedge on my left. After several hundred yards I reached a path and track junction, with a footbridge over the Chess and the entrance to some water cress beds on my right. I just went straight on here, following a surfaced drive for several hundred yards until it ended at a bend in a lane.
The path through the Chess Valley from Chenies Bottom
The path through the Chess Valley from Chenies Bottom, passing the Frogmore Meadows nature reserve
The path through the Chess Valley
The path through the Chess Valley
The path through the Chess Valley
The path through the Chess Valley
I turned right along the lane. After a little while it went left, but I continued straight on along the valley bottom on a surfaced track or drive. When this eventually brought me to a gate, I turned right to cross a small footbridge over the river Chess at Sarratt Bottom (this being one of the most delightful spots I know in the Chilterns!).
The path through the Chess Valley
The path through the Chess Valley
The river Chess at Sarratt Bottom
The footbridge over the river Chess at Sarratt Bottom
The river Chess at Sarratt Bottom
The path crossed the floor of the valley and went through a gate. I then took a path forking right, which went uphill across a corn field, turning left on the far side between a fence and a hedge. In the field corner the path turned right, initially with a small wood to my left and then following a track to reach Mountwood Farm. I then just had to follow the straight and level drive from the farm for almost half a mile - it ended in the centre of Chenies, close to the green where I'd parked.
The path from Sarratt Bottom to Chenies (after I turned right)
Looking back across the Chess Valley towards Church End, Sarratt
The path approaching Mountwood Farm
The drive from Mountwood Farm
View over the Chess Valley from the drive from Mountwood Farm
The drive from Mountwood Farm
This was a nice day for a walk - the prolonged hot and dry spell had been briefly broken by heavy rain overnight, so there was a cooler and fresher feel to the day. As with last week's walk, I enjoyed this one more than I'd expected to - again it was on paths that I'd used many times before, but it seemed a while since I'd walked most of them and the route never felt over-familiar. In any case, the Chess Valley is so charming that I always enjoy walking here.