Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and the Hampdens (page 1 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 did this circular walk of about 12.5 miles on Wednesday, January 24th 2024. It was a repeat of my Coombe Hill and the Hampdens walk (Walk 12 of the Chiltern Chain Walk, anti-clockwise).
I parked at the Coombe Hill car park (grid reference SP 852063), and started walking at roughly 9.25am. I went through the gate by the entrance to the car park and turned left, following a hedge and fence line with an open area of grass and bushes to my right. After a few hundred yards I turned left through a metal kissing-gate, joining the route of the Ridgeway national trail which I would now be following as far as Whiteleaf Hill. The path ran through a beech wood on top of Lodge Hill, with fields close by on my left. When I reached a lane (the one to the car park) I turned right, downhill, for about a hundred yards, then took a path on the left. The Ridgeway now continued southwards through Linton's Wood and Goodmerhill Wood for about half a mile (there were plenty of fingerposts and white acorns signs to guide me at various minor path junctions, but the general rule was 'straight on'). It then turned right down a clear track, which dropped quite steeply downhill. After crossing a bridleway, the path left the wood and ran through a tree belt to reach a minor road at Buckmoorend.
The start of the path from the Coombe Hill car park
The Ridgeway on Lodge Hill
The short road walk on Lodge Hill
The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood
The Ridgeway in Linton's Wood
The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood
The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood, after it turns right
The Ridgeway descending to Buckmoorend
I crossed the road and continued along a footpath that crossed the grounds and drive of Chequers, the Prime Minister's country house, which was over to my right. The path then continued across a large field to reach the edge of Maple Wood (signs were posted asking people to stay on the path despite the muddy conditions), where it turned right and followed the edge of the wood for several hundred yards, with views towards Chequers to the right. I spotted mistletoe in some trees here.
The Ridgeway crossing the grounds surrounding Chequers
The Ridgeway approaching Maple Wood
The Ridgeway running alongside Maple Wood
Mistletoe on trees near Chequers (the hill in the background is Beacon Hill)
Chequers and Coombe Hill
The path, now named Cradle Footpath on the OS map, then ran across a large grassy field to a gate on the far side, beyond which it continued through an area of grass and bushes, passing the end of a wooded valley on my right.
The Cradle footpath
The Cradle footpath
The Cradle footpath