Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and the Hampdens (page 5 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.
This bridleway soon became a roughly surfaced track, which brought me to the hamlet of Dunsmore. I went straight on when I came to a lane junction in the centre of the hamlet (close to the tiny church and the duck pond). When the lane ended on the edge of the hamlet I went straight on along a bridleway (a footpath forked left here) and then kept left where another bridleway forked right (and passed some paddocks).
The bridleway after I turned left at a junction at the top of the slope, heading towards Dunsmore
The bridleway to Dunsmore
The chapel at Dunsmore
The bridleway ran between fences through a wood named High Scrubs, heading roughly northwest. Further on the wood became Low Scrubs, and there was only an intermittent old iron fence on my right. At one point the bridleway curved left away from the old fence, but I kept on alongside it on a footpath. The bridleway soon came back and merged with the path - I followed it a few yards to the right, then took a path on my left (not very clear but yellow arrows on trees) to continue in the same direction as I'd been on since Dunsmore. This short path continued through the woods for one or two hundred yards, then I crossed a very broad bridleway (I could have turned left here to reach the car park, shortening the walk by about half a mile) to reach a kissing-gate (hidden behind a tree) on the edge of the wood.
The bridleway from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The bridleway from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The bridleway from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The bridleway from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The footpath from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The footpath from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The path to Coombe Hill (I was heading to a gate that is hidden from view just right of centre of this shot)
I was now on the scrub-covered top of Coombe Hill, where I followed the edge of the wood on my left a short way and then joined a gravel path heading straight on towards the tall monument on the hill-top. When this path turned left I just went straight on to reach the monument. After taking the usual photos (the views were not at their best, it was now a bit cloudy and there was some mist over the Vale of Aylesbury) I turned left along a broad strip of grass with bushes and trees either side. At the end of the grass, the path went left through some trees and crossed a small area of grass and bushes to return to the car park where I'd started.
The path to the monument on Coombe Hill (from the gate mentioned in the previous photo's caption)
Approaching the monument on Coombe Hill
The Vale of Aylesbury and Wendover Woods from Coombe Hill
The Vale of Aylesbury from Coombe Hill
Beacon Hill from Coombe Hill (the distant hill on the left is Wain Hill near Chinnor)
The path back to the car park on Coombe Hill
The path back to the car park on Coombe Hill
This is one of my very favourite walks in the Chilterns, but I walked it so many times that I got a bit bored with it and so hadn't walked it since 2017. It was a real pleasure to walk it again, despite the muddy conditions and despite the far-reaching views from Whiteleaf Hill and Coombe Hill not being at their best. I'm sure I won't wait so long before I walk it again!