Pete's Walks- Kensworth, Roe End and Bison Hill (page 5 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.
View towards Dunstable Downs
The old Drovers' Way slowly ascending Whipsnade Downs
The old Drovers' Way slowly ascending Whipsnade Downs
The path continuing along Whipsnade Downs
Eventually I reached a wire fence where, now finishing my search for wildlife, I continued with the fence on my right. Through a metal-kissing-gate, I continued half-right to a second such gate, through which I turned right. I soon came to a fence corner, where I turned left and followed the fence uphill. On reaching a hedgerow I went through a gate on my right and followed the hedge past a few trees standing just inside a huge grass field. On coming to a corner after one or two hundred yards, I turned left through a gate, and started along a bridleway heading towards Whipsnade. This soon crossed a surfaced drive and a short way further on I kept left at a fork.
View back along Whipsnade Downs (I turned left immediately before the gate)
The path after I turned left - the fence is the boundary between Dunstable Downs and Whipsnade Downs
The path after I turned right
The bridleway back to Whipsnade, just before I kept left at a fork
The bridleway now had woodland to the right, and then briefly had a wood either side. It then ran along to the right of a field, before continuing past a mobile home park on the right. A little further on I came to a junction where a bridleway went left. I took that bridleway, which ran between hedges for a few hundred yards to reach a road. Here I went left a short way, then turned right into Land Park Lane. I followed this all the way to its end, where I turned right and followed Common Road, Kensworth, back to my starting point.
The bridleway back to Whipsnade
The bridleway back to Whipsnade
The bridleway back to Whipsnade
The bridleway back to Whipsnade
The bridleway after I turned left just before reaching Whipsnade
Land Park Lane
Land Park Lane
Common Road, Kensworth
Common Road, Kensworth
I enjoyed this walk much more than I'd anticipated (the superb weather no doubt helped!). I'd been concerned that having walked many short local walks from home during the lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic, I'd have grown a bit over-familiar with many of the paths and would find some of them boring. That didn't happen at all, possibly helped by my interest in wildlife meaning that I look out for different things along the same path at different times of the year. It helped too that there were a couple of places where I managed to take paths I'd not walked for some years. Combining the walk with a spot of butterfly and orchid hunting worked well too - so well in fact, I repeated the walk two weeks later!