Pete's Walks- Redland End and Coombe Hill (page 3 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 went left along the lane for about a hundred yards, before taking a footpath on the right. This went uphill diagonally through a large paddock, to the far corner on my left. I crossed over a bridleway and continued straight on uphill on a path through small trees, going straight on at a path junction to reach the tumulus (an ancient burial mound, in this case barely discernible) on Bacombe Hill. After admiring the view over Wendover to Wendover Woods, I turned left and followed the long path over Bacombe Hill, with views out to the right over the Vale of Aylesbury. After some distance the path merged with the Ridgeway national trail (coming in gradually from the right) - I think it is about here that Bacombe End ends and Coombe Hill begins. The path continued through an area of small trees, then went through gates either side of a sunken bridleway, before continuing through a more open area to reach the monument at the top of Coombe Hill.
Bacombe Lane
Looking back to Bacombe
The path on Bacombe Hill approaching the tumulus
The view over Wendover from the tumulus
The path from the tumulus along Bacombe Hill
View towards Wendover and Wendover Woods from Bacombe Hill
The Ridgeway on Coombe Hill
The Ridgeway, heading to the monument on Coombe Hill
After admiring the view (nowhere near their best in today's grey conditions) I continued by turning left and following a broad and flat strip of grass with bushes either side. At the far end, the path turned left, passed through some trees then continued towards the Coombe Hill car park. As I reached the gate to the car park, I turned sharply right onto a path that followed a hedge on my left. I followed the path for 3-400 yards to a metal kissing-gate on the left, where I went through the gate (rejoining the Ridgeway, marked by white acorn symbols as usual) and followed a path through a beech wood, close to a field on my left. When I reached a road (the one to the car park), I turned right and followed it for a couple of hundred yards before turning left on a path beginning next to the start of a drive.
Looking out to the Vale of Aylesbury from Coombe Hill
Pulpit Hill (left) and Beacon Hill from Coombe Hill
The way back to the Coombe Hill car park
The way back to the Coombe Hill car park
The path from the car park, after I turned sharply right
The Ridgeway again, running through a wood on Lodge Hill
The road on Lodge Hill