Pete's Walks - Cholesbury and Whelpley Hill (page 3 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 byway continued for several hundred yards, accompanied by the noise of the dual carriageway over to my left. At its end I turned right along a bridleway that dropped downhill along the drive to Bottom Farm. Immediately before the farm I turned left along another bridleway, which was soon following a hedgerow on my right along the bottom of a valley. After a few hundred yards, the bridleway went through the hedge and crossed a flat pasture to a gate in a corner. Here I bore left, now with Lower Farm nearby on my right, and then turned left along a surfaced drive or track.
The byway continuing beside the A41
The byway continuing beside the A41
Looking left from the drive to Bottom Farm
The drive to Bottom Farm
The bridleway from Bottom Farm to Lower Farm
The bridleway from Bottom Farm to Lower Farm
Near Lower Farm - the bridleway continues along the surfaced drive, then I took a path on the right following the far side of the hedgerow rising uphill
I then turned right along a footpath that rose uphill beside a hedgerow on my right. On eventually reaching a field corner, the path continued between a young plantation on my left and a wood on my right (there were dummy Tanks in the wood, it is, or was, used for paint-balling). The path then entered a corner of a ploughed field, following the left edge of the field and passing a house in the next corner (new since I did this walk in 2011). I then turned right along a hedge-lined track, soon passing a reservoir on my left. Where the hedges ended, the footpath went left, following the edge of part of Bovingdon Airfield that is now used as a motor racing circuit (I saw and heard 3 or 4 cars going round it). The path curved right then ran straight for a while. Just before reaching the tall fences of a prison, I went right at a path junction, following a line of trees on my left then passing close to a hangar, before turning left along another row of trees and a fence on my left.
Looking back to Lower Farm
The path uphill beside the hedgerow (looking straight into the sun!)
Looking back to Lower Farm
The path continuing southeast
The path continuing southeast
The path continuing southeast
The path after I turned right
The path continuing past the race track
The path continuing towards the prison
The path after I turned right, passing the prison
The same path near the hangar
Further along the path