Pete's Walks - Variation on 'Four Hills' 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.
On leaving Coxgrove Wood, the path dropped downhill across an arable field. It then went a short way uphill across the corner of an empty pasture. I then joined a bridleway, where I went straight on between fences and soon reached Bacombe. At the end of the bridleway I turned left along Bacombe Lane, but then after a hundred yards or so I took a path on the right that went uphill across an empty paddock or pasture (it usually has horses in it but I did find some young cattle here once) to a stile in the top left corner.
The path continuing from Coxgrove Wood
The path continuing from Coxgrove Wood
The bridleway into Bacombe
Bacombe Lane
The path across the paddock at Bacombe
Over the stile I reached a bridleway gently rising up Bacombe Hill. I intended to turn right here, following the bridleway downhill, then turning very sharply left to follow the Ridgeway up Bacombe Hill and on to the monument on Coombe Hill. But the skies were very grey now and a heavier hail storm looked imminent, and as I dithered over whether to cut the walk short, the sound of hailstones to my left made my mind up for me. I turned left to take a more direct route to Coombe Hill, following the bridleway uphill, initially with a line of beech trees on my right. The hail was quite heavy, but gradually eased off as I progressed along the bridleway. At one point I could look through the trees on my right and see out over the Vale of Aylesbury.
The bridleway up Bacombe Hill, just after I turned left - it was hailing heavily here
The bridleway up Bacombe Hill
The bridleway up Bacombe Hill
A view out towards the Vale of Aylesbury, from the bridleway up Bacombe Hill
The bridleway up Bacombe Hill
The bridleway up Bacombe Hill
After just over half a mile, when I could see the cars at the Coombe Hill car park ahead of me, I went through a metal kissing gate on the right (obviously I could have just continued down the bridleway, but the last section to the car park is always very muddy, and in any case it just seems wrong to go to Coombe Hill and not visit the monument!). It was hailing heavily again now, as I went straight on parallel to the edge of a wood on my left, and soon joined a surface track that continued ahead to reach the Boer War monument on the top of Coombe Hill. I managed to take some photos of the grey and dismal conditions, but couldn't help getting some splashes of rain on my lens. I then turned left and followed a broad swathe of grass with bushes or trees either side. At its end a path led through a few trees, and then continued across an area of grass and bushes to bring me back to the Coombe Hill car park (where I was amused to see an ice cream van in the hail storm - it did actually get a customer!). By the time I'd taken my walking boots off, the hail was really coming down heavily, and as I drove down Coombe Hill it was like being in a snowstorm (only noisier!).
The path to the monument on Coombe Hill, after I turned right through a kissing-gate
A very damp and dismal view of the Vale of Aylesbury from Coombe Hill
Approaching the Boer War monument on Coombe Hill
Dramatic view west towards Beacon Hill
The path back to the Coombe HIll car park
The path back to the Coombe HIll car park
This was a variation of one of my favourite routes in the Chilterns (cutting it short at the end made it a 'variation of a variation ...'!). I've given the original 'Four Hills' walk, and also the couple of variations of it that I've done, my highest '***' rating on my 'Chiltern Walks' pages, and I rate this version of the route just as highly. I really believe it would be difficult to find many better walks than this in the Chilterns. It has a lot of ups and downs, miles of woodland walking, plenty of fine views including far-reaching ones out over the Vale of Aylesbury, and passes a wide variety of sites of historic interest. I am already looking forward to walking it again some day!