Pete's Walks - Lilley to Barton-le-Clay walk (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.
At the end of the field the track curved left through more trees (near Wellbury House), then another field appeared on my right. I soon turned right onto another bridleway that crossed part of this field, then went slightly left as it passed some trees on the left, before climbing steadily uphill. As the bridleway approached some buildings at Little Offley, it turned left alongside a hedge on my right. After some way the bridleway went through a gap in the hedge and continued along a tree-lined drive coming from Little Offley. I soon came to a bridleway crossroads, where I turned right. I now followed this bridleway for almost three quarters of a mile to reach Lilleyhoo Lane.
The start of the bridleway to Little Offley
The bridleway to Little Offley
The bridleway at Little Offley after it turned left
The bridleway at Little Offley following a drive
The bridleway after I turned right at Little Offley, heading to Lilleyhoo Lane
The bridleway from Little Offley to Lilleyhoo Lane
The bridleway from Little Offley to Lilleyhoo Lane
The bridleway from Little Offley to Lilleyhoo Lane
The bridleway from Little Offley to Lilleyhoo Lane
The bridleway from Little Offley to Lilleyhoo Lane
The bridleway approaching Lilleyhoo Lane
I turned right along Lilleyhoo Lane, then after two or three hundred yards took a footpath on the left that followed a tall hedgerow on my right (oddly the OS Map shows the footpath on the other side of this field boundary). This path had been surfaced with some gravel since I was last here. It rose uphill along the edge of a large ploughed field, then dropped more steeply down the other side of the hill, with a fine view ahead over Lilley and its surroundings. At the bottom of the slope the path went half-right to cross a large paddock to a gate, where it turned half-left to go straight across another paddock to another gate. A short alley then brought me to the road through Lilley, where I went a short way right and then forked left to return to my car.
Lilleyhoo Lane, after I turned right
The start of the path from Lilleyhoo Lane to Lilley
The path from Lilleyhoo Lane to Lilley
The path from Lilleyhoo Lane to Lilley
The path from Lilleyhoo Lane to Lilley
Lilley church
Unusually, I'd really struggled to decide where to walk this weekend and only plumped for this route at the last minute. I felt rather guilty when I started the walk, because it's one of my favourite routes in all the Chilterns and I should probably have saved it for a far better day than this cold and grey day in January. But by the time I reached Warden Hill I'd forgotten that, and just got on with enjoying what I think is a great walk. Obviously the views from all the hills were not at their best in these rather drab conditions (and all the photos would look better with blue skies), but it was still a wonderful way to spend most of my Saturday.