Pete's Walks- Coombe Hill, Bacombe Hill, Little Hampden (page 4 of 4)
On reaching a path crossroads in the valley bottom, I turned left along a bridleway, running beside a tall fence on my left. Just after reaching a concrete drive at Dunsmore Old Farm, I took a footpath on the right, that ran between fences as it passed a garden on my left. It then went uphill across part of a pasture (the only steep uphill of the walk) and went over a stile, continuing beside a left-hand fence through a meadow of long grass - I photographed a Common Blue butterfly and some Common Centaury here. At the end of the path, I turned right along a lane in the hamlet of Dunsmore. Near the chapel and pond in the centre of the hamlet, I turned left along a lane (Fox Lane, I think) and followed the lane to its end on the edge of the village.
The bridleway after I turned left, approaching Old Dunsmore Farm
The path from Old Dunsmore Farm to Dunsmore
The path from Old Dunsmore Farm to Dunsmore
The path from Old Dunsmore Farm to Dunsmore
The Church of the Resurrection, Dunsmore (built in 1897 as a 'chapel of ease' to the parish church of St Peter and Paul at Ellesborough)
The lane through Dunsmore after I turned left
At the end of the lane I took the left-most of two bridleways starting there (a footpath had just gone further left), and followed it through a wood called High Scrubs, with fences on either side of me. After about a third of a mile I went straight on where a footpath went left and a bridleway went right. A bit further on a bridleway went left, and around this point the wood became Low Scrubs. I went straight on, on the leftmost of two parallel bridleways only a few feet apart (the rightmost one followed some old railings). I soon came to a waymark post, where I turned left onto a footpath. I followed this path until it ended at a path T-junction, where I turned right. At the next path junction, after a few hundred yards I turned left. This path seemed to fork after a while, I kept left and it took me back to the Coombe Hill car park near its entrance (the right fork would have taken me nearer the other end of the car park, I think).
The bridleway through High Scrubs
The bridleway through High Scrubs
The bridleway through High Scrubs
The same bridleway, now in Low Scrubs
The footpath after I turned left in Low Scrubs
The path after I turned right in Low Scrubs
Further along the same path
Further along the same path
The path after I turned left, heading back to the car park on Coombe Hill
The same path arriving back at the car park on Coombe Hill
This was a good shorter walk, with no steep downhills and only a short steepish uphill at Dunsmore, near the end. It was a shame about the misty start to the walk, because the early views from Coombe Hill and Bacombe Hill are by far the best on this route. About three miles of the route (between the foot of Bacombe Hill near Wendover and the lane near Buckmoorend) I'd only walked once before, and there was a short section of footpaths at the bottom of Coombe Hill I'd never walked before, so the walk held some novelty value for me. Apart from the start, most of the walk is in woodland, so it would be a good choice for a hot day where it would be best to stay in the shade as much as possible.