Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and the Hampden Monument (page 3 of 3)
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.
The path continued a little further uphill through Warren Wood, before levelling out - recent forestry operations had made bit of a mess of the path here. Near the far side of the wood I came to a path junction (with a waymark post), where I went straight on and left the wood. From a field corner, tractor tracks showed where the path went across a large corn field. On the far side the path soon joined a driveway and followed it to the lane through Little Hampden. I turned left along the lane, retracing my earlier steps for one or two hundred yards, before taking a bridleway on the right. This led gradually downhill through more woods, for over half a mile. On reaching a valley bottom I turned left onto another bridleway, with a fence to my left. When the wood to my right ended, I then took a footpath forking right. This led uphill through a sequence of attractive meadows to reach a lane at Dunsmore.
Warren Wood
Warren Wood
The path from Warren Wood to Little Hampden
The start of the bridleway from Little Hampden towards Dunsmore
The bridleway from Little Hampden towards Dunsmore
The bridleway from Little Hampden towards Dunsmore
The bridleway from Little Hampden towards Dunsmore
The bridleway to Dunsmore Old Farm, after I turned left
The path to Dunsmore, after I forked right
The path to Dunsmore, after I forked right
The path to Dunsmore, after I forked right
I turned right along the lane, soon coming to a crossroads by the village pond where I turned left. At the end of this lane I continued ahead along a bridleway, soon keeping left at a bridleway fork (just after a footpath forked left). The bridleway headed northwest towards Coombe Hill, through woods named High Scrubs and Low Scrubs. After about half a mile, a footpath began to run parallel to the bridleway, with an old metal fence on the right. After another one or two hundred yards I took a footpath going left, and at its end I turned right. After a while this path went through a small open area carpeted with Bluebells. On reaching a path T-junction, I turned left and followed the path back to the car park where I'd started.
The bridleway going northwest from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The bridleway going northwest from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The bridleway going northwest from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill (this is the start of the section where a footpath runs parallel to the bridleway)
The path going northwest from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The footpath after I turned left
The footpath after I turned right at a T-junction
Further along the same footpath
The path after I turned left, heading back to the Coombe Hill car park
This was a very enjoyable walk, on a perfect Spring day when the fresh green leaves were almost dazzlingly bright. The area around Great and Little Hampden has long been one of my favourite parts of the Chilterns, and it certainly didn't disappoint today. It was interesting to see the Hampden Monument, which I'd previously only seen from a distance on a walk I did in January (I only worked out what it was when I got home).