Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and Kingsash (with HS2 diversion) (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.
On eventually reaching the western end of the wood, the path ran between fences for a short way to reach a bridleway just south of Dunsmore. A few yards to the left I took a path on the other side, which entered Scrub Wood. After two or three hundred yards it ended at a junction where I turned right onto a bridleway, going downhill through the wood. In the valley bottom I turned right again at another junction, following a tall wooden fence on my left to reach the buildings around Dunsmore Old Farm. Here I went left at a green fingerpost, along a track or drive that within three or four hundred yards brought me to Fugsdon Wood.
The path continuing from Sermon Wood to the bridleway south of Dunsmore
View right from the path continuing from Sermon Wood to the bridleway south of Dunsmore
The path on the other side of the Bridleway
The bridleway descending through Scrub Wood
The bridleway to Dunsmore Old Farm
The bridleway after I turned left at Dunsmore Old Farm
Just inside the wood, I turned right and followed a path slightly uphill through the trees - I saw my first Yellow Pimpernel of 2023 here. After maybe three hundred yards I came to a path T-junction where I went left. I now followed this path through the wood for about half a mile, going straight on at a path crossroads. At some point the wood became Linton's Wood, though the boundary with Fugsdon Wood is not shown on the OS map.
The path after I turned right just inside Fugsdon Wood
Linton's Wood
Linton's Wood
Eventually I turned right when the path met a large crossing path, a wooden sign indicating that I was joining another part of the Ridgeway. I followed it through more of Linton's Wood for about a quarter of a mile to reach a road on Lodge Hill. Here I went right, uphill, for about a hundred yards, before turning left at another Ridgeway sign (I could have just gone straight on along the road to reach the Coombe Hill car park). This path ran through another nice beech wood for three or four hundred yards to reach a metal-kissing gate. Here I had to simply turn right to return to the car park.
The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood
The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood
The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood
The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood
The road on Lodge Hill
The Ridgeway on Lodge Hill, after I turned left from the road
The path back to the car park on Coombe Hill
I'd been looking forward to this walk as it's a favourite of mine and I hadn't walked it since before the pandemic. It was a shame about the diversion caused by the HS2 works (it meant missing one of the best parts of the route), but at least I walked a lane and some paths I'd not walked before. I had chosen to do this walk partly because there was a lot of woodland walking and the day was forecast to be hot - I was never uncomfortably hot but I wouldn't have wanted it to be any warmer, so I think that was a sensible decision. Last time I did this walk I was disappointed by the number of other people I saw, but that had been on a Sunday and this was a Friday. I only saw half a dozen people at Coombe Hill, and there were fewer people than usual near the Visitor Centre in Wendover Woods.