Pete's Walks - Shortened version of Kensworth-Totternhoe walk (page 5 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 this path, I turned right along the foot of Dunstable Downs. I followed this path for several hundred yards, with the steep slope of the Downs sloping up to my left. I went straight on after going through one gate across this path, then immediately after going through a second gate, I turned left (usually when I do this route I continue straight on here, but when I last came this way the path ahead was almost impassible, with nettles and brambles barring the way). I only went a short way up the steep slope, before turning half-right along an old path that went up the slope at a much more reasonable angle. The path was a little overgrown, but was very pleasant and a gentle way of climbing the Downs. I kept along it until it finally met the wire fence of a large sheep pasture, where I turned right along a path that ran beside the fence.
The path along the foot of the Downs
The path along the foot of the Downs
The path along the foot of the Downs
The short section after I turned left, straight up the slope of the Downs (I turned half-right just after the two small trees on the right of the path)
The path up the Downs after I turned half-right
The path up the Downs after I turned half-right
View back
The path up the Downs after I turned half-right
The path ran beside the fence for several hundred yards, then moved gradually away from it (to the right), still running fairly level. On reaching a junction (where the path continued ahead downhill along an old drovers' way that had worn a groove in the hillside and where a similar drover's way crossed the path) I turned left. [UPDATE 28/01/2025 - just follow the bottom of the drovers' way here, the path going steeply up to the right of it is now blocked by thorny bushes] There was a very brief bit of steepish uphill here, then the path gradually wound its way around the top of Bison Hill.
The path along the Downs, beside the large pasture
Looking back along the Downs
The path along the Downs, beside the large pasture
Further along the same path
Junction where I turned left on Bison Hill
The path on Bison Hill
The path on Bison Hill
The path on Bison Hill