Pete's Walks - Variation on 'Four Hills' Walk (page 4 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.
On reaching an apparent fork, I stayed on the wider path that kept left - the other path soon rejoined it, and looking back a white arrow indicated I'd come the right way. When, soon after, a footpath crossed the bridleway (there was a rather redundant stile here) I continued straight on, now with an ancient earthwork called Grim's Ditch on my left. The trees on my right soon ended, and the bridleway continued for several hundred yards beside a large field on that side, still with Grim's Ditch in a tree belt on my left. At the end of the field, the bridleway went through a gate, continuing straight on along a broad grassy track between fences, towards Hampden House.
The bridleway continuing through Kingsfield Wood
The bridleway continuing through Kingsfield Wood
The bridleway continuing alongside Grim's Ditch
The bridleway continuing alongside Grim's Ditch
The bridleway continuing alongside Grim's Ditch, heading towards Hampden House
Approaching Hampden House
Approaching Hampden House
Through another gate, the bridleway continued down a gravel drive, between Hampden House and another property on the right. It then passed Great Hampden church on the right. I followed the drive to a gate at its end (you have to press a big button to open the gate), and then immediately took a footpath on the left, starting at a stile. The path bore slightly left across a large meadow, soon starting to drop downhill - over to my left I could see the east front of Hampden House. Over a stile, the path continued downhill through another meadow to reach a minor road. Across this, a path continued beside a hedge on my right as it crossed the floor of a valley named Hampden Bottom and reached the minor road that runs through the valley..
Great Hampden church
The drive from Hampden House and Great Hampden church
The start of the path I took from Great Hampden to Little Hampden
Hampden House, from the east
The path to Little Hampden
The path to Little Hampden
The path to Little Hampden, between the two roads in Hampden Bottom
Across this second road a path continued, now following a hedge on my left as it gradually rose up the other side of the valley. After several hundred yards the path entered Warren Wood, where it went slightly left and soon reached the top of the slope. I went straight on at a path junction near the far side of the wood, my path then leaving the wood and crossing a large arable field. On the far side of this field, the path turned half-right and ran between a fence and hedge, and then along a driveway to reach the lane through Little Hampden, where I turned left.
Hampden House, from the east
The path to Little Hampden
The path to Little Hampden
The path to Little Hampden, between the two roads in Hampden Bottom
The path continuing up to Warren Wood
Warren Wood
Warren Wood
The path continuing from Warren Wood
The path entering Little Hampden