Pete's Walks - Pitstone Hill, Ashridge, Dagnall (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.
I followed the tall hedgerow until I met a track, where I then turned left and followed it uphill. When I drew level with a tumulus (burial mound) on the right, I turned left and started up the grassy slope of Gallows Hill. I then continued along the grassy ridge towards Ivinghoe Beacon - there were good views all around, but yet again the best ones were behind me (to the long line of Dunstable Downs and Whipsnade Downs). After taking a few photos from the top of the Beacon, I turned left and soon dropped steeply downhill. I went over the first (insignificant) hillock here and then took a gradual path up the second one, turning left at the top to drop down to where the Ridgeway crosses a road at a sharp bend.
The path up Gallows Hill - note the tumulus on the right
The path up Gallows Hill
The path along Gallows Hill to Ivinghoe Beacon
The path along Gallows Hill to Ivinghoe Beacon
Looking back
View over the Vale of Aylesbury from Ivinghoe Beacon
The path after I turned right on Ivinghoe Beacon
Looking towards Steps Hill from the larger of the two hillocks by Ivinghoe Beacon - the woods of Aldbury Nowers and Pitstone Hill are on the right
Across the road, the Ridgeway soon forked right just behind a small tree. I followed it as it rose gently round the scrub-covered slopes of Steps Hill. After going through a gate the Ridgeway turns left, but I went straight on, this path turning left after a while and bringing me to the top of Steps Hill where I rejoined the Ridgeway. I passed the head of a steep-sided valley called Incombe Hole on my right, the Ridgeway curving and descending around this and then following a fence-line on the left for several hundred yards to reach a lane and the Pitstone Hill car park where I'd started.
Where the Ridgeway forks right just after I crossed the road
The path up Steps Hill
The path up Steps Hill
The path up Steps Hill
Approaching the top of Steps Hill
Incombe Hole
The path descending from Steps Hill
The path continuing towards the Pitstone Hill car park
This was a frustrating walk, as I knew it would be when I set off. Ordinarily I would probably be rating it highly, there's nothing at all wrong with it - except that it is definitely better in the opposite direction! Almost all the best views on this route were behind me today, and I stopped on numerous occasions to admire the views that would have been ahead of me if I'd been following the route clockwise. But at least I can say I've walked this circular route in both directions now. I'm sure I'll walk the route again, but equally sure I'll be walking it clockwise.