Pete's Walks- Southeast from Cadmore End (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.
The track ran a short distance with hedges either side until it reached Denham Wood. Here I took a path forking right, heading through the middle of this attractive Beech wood. On the far side of Denham Wood, the path ran through an empty pasture, staying quite close to the hedge on the left, then went along a short alley to reach a lane in Wheeler End. Here I went a few yards left then took a path on the other side that crossed Wheeler End Common. The path ran through bushes and emerged into a more open area of bracken and bushes. After a hundred yards or so I went a few yards right, then turned left along a path between (and overhung by) bushes. I followed this until I reached a track, where I turned right and soon came to another lane
The bridleway between Great Wood and Denham Wood
View left from the bridleway between Great Wood and Denham Wood
The footpath through Denham Wood
The path continuing to Wheeler End
Wheeler End Common
Wheeler End Common
Across the lane, there was a path and then a bridleway entering Cadmore End Common. I followed the latter - there are numerous paths on this common, most of which are not on the OS map, but I simply took the left-fork at each fork I came to and tried to stay close to the edge of the common on my left (there was usually a fence or hedge there). At one point I crossed the drive in front of a cottage on my left (the path continued from almost beside the garden boundary, where cars were parked). I then soon passed a pond on my right, which I remembered, then passed a cottage on my right (I actually took a right-fork to pass this cottage, because a footpath waymark pointed this way) and then a second pond on my right. Soon after this I came to a fork where I suspected I should keep right as this path was much clearer - I was correct, because this path soon brought me to a drive where there was a waymark post.
Cadmore End Common, some time after crossing the road
Cadmore End Common
Cadmore End Common
Pond on Cadmore End Common
Cadmore End Common
A second pond on Cadmore End Common
Cadmore End Common
I turned left along the drive, and almost immediately came to another one where I again turned left. This took me over the M40 and back to the road through Cadmore End, opposite the entrance to Rackley's Farm. I turned right and retraced my steps back to my car (again using the path parallel to the road, then following the road as far as a sign saying The Old Ship Inn, before taking the lane forking left).
The first drive, after I turned left
The second drive, just before it crosses the M40
The path parallel to the road
The lane through Cadmore End
Cadmore End church
When I wrote up this walk in 2016 I said "... this is not one of the better routes I've ever come up with ... I'd be quite happy to do it again, but there are many more walks I'd like to repeat first". Having walked the route again on an almost perfect day for walking (sunny, warm but not too hot), I feel I rather undersold the route. No, it's not one of the best routes I've walked in the Chilterns, but it's as good as most of them. I think I marked the route down because of the lengthy section along lanes between Frieth and Heath Wood, probably the longest lane walk on any of the routes I've walked in the Chilterns, but today that went by remarkably quickly. There were hardly any cars on it, and there were several nice views. So I didn't feel that it detracted from the route at all. Overall the route had a good mixture of woods and field paths, and plenty of uphill and downhill sections to add to the variety. It's just over five years since I last walked this route, but I'm fairly sure that I won't leave it another five years before I walk this route again.