Pete's Walks - Shortened version of Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail (page 4 of 5)
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 turned right along the very edge of the common (there was a broader path just to my left). In a corner the path went straight on, back into the trees and soon bearing very slightly left. The route then ran through a more open area of bushes and occasional trees, with a valley dropping down to my left - again, I just had to follow the waymarks. The path then re-entered the trees and turned left, now following the southwest edge of Northchurch Common with fields just a few feet to my right. The path dropped down into a valley and rose a short distance up the other side before levelling out, still staying close to the fields on my right. It then dropped downhill into another small valley, where I turned left along a drive (coming from a property named "Goreseside's" on the OS map)
Northchurch Common
Northchurch Common
Northchurch Common
Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
The path along the wooded southwestern edge of Northchurch Common
The drive from "Gorseside's)"
I followed the drive gently uphill for three or four hundred yards, then took a short bridleway on the right that quickly brought me to the Ringshall to Northchurch road. Across this, I soon kept left at a bridleway junction, and then stopped to sit on a convenient tree stump to eat my packed lunch. The bridleway took me to the drive to Northchurch Farm, where I turned left and followed the drive past the farm. At a gate, I took a path forking left and continued across what I think is a Polo field (the path I'd forked left from goes round two sides of this). On the far side, I went a few yards left and turned right, continuing between a hedge and a wooden fence on my right. Over a stile, the path continued down a track which soon turned left and then right, carrying on for another straight half mile, initially beside a huge stubble field (on my left) and then a field whose crop puzzled me until I remembered that when I did this walk last year I'd seen the blue flowers of Flax here. On finally reaching a field corner, the path continued half-left across a meadow to reach Coldharbour Farm.
The path across the road, heading to Northchurch Farm
Approaching Northchurch Farm after I turned left
The path across what I think is a Polo pitch
View along the route ahead from the far side of the Polo pitch
The path continuing from the Polo pitch
The path continuing towards Coldharbour Farm
The path continuing towards Coldharbour Farm (the crop in the field is Flax, the seeds of which produce Linseed Oil)
Approaching Coldharbour Farm