Pete's Walks - Pitstone Hill, Dagnall, Ashridge (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.
After a while I reached a drive, where the bridleway went more or less straight on, passing the garden of a property named Tim's Spring on my left. Just beyond the garden, a path came in from the right and the bridleway turned slightly left and started to descend a hillside. It turned further left at the bottom of the slope, and followed a track between hedges for a while. Just after the hedge on the right finished, I turned right and followed a footpath across a field. Through a hedge gap on the other side, the path turned half-left across a larger field. On the far side I reached a drive or lane coming from Duncombe Farm (to my right) where I turned left. I followed the drive for several hundred yards until it ended at a junction with a lane where I turned right.
The bridleway after I forked left
The bridleway continuing past a property on the left named Tim's Spring
The bridleway as it starts to descend
The bridleway descending from Ashridge
The old Ash tree, just after the bridleway levels out
The path after I turned right
The path after I turned right
The drive from Duncombe Farm
The drive from Duncombe Farm
I followed the lane for about a quarter of a mile or so, before taking a path on the left. This followed a tall hedgerow on my left, which after a while gradually curved right. The path then continued across a couple of arable fields (the first one ploughed). On reaching the edge of the second field, the path turned half-right along the edge of the field to reach some open downland near Pitstone Hill. Here I turned right and made my way to the top of a hillock (I could have just followed a path round to the right), descending the other side to reach the car park where I'd started.
The start of the short lane section
The start of the path after I turned left from the lane
The path after I turned left from the lane
The path after I turned left from the lane
The path after I turned left from the lane
Approaching the 'hillock'
View from the 'hillock' towards Ivinghoe Beacon (left) and Steps Hill
I really should have saved this route for a better day, it is so good it really deserves to be done on a fine sunny day when the views are at their best. As I've not walked much in the last six weeks, plus I've put on a few pounds in weight (well, it is Christmas!), I've lost a bit of fitness and must admit I was plodding rather than walking for the last couple of hours. The fact that all the paths were so muddy certainly didn't help!