Pete's Walks- Cadmore End, Horsleys Green, Twigside Bottom (page 4 of 4)
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 turned left onto a footpath along a track in the valley bottom, soon passing two junctions where other footpaths went off to my right. After a while I forked slightly left along a second track that ran parallel to the first track for a hundred yards or so before rejoining it (this second track used to be just a faint path). I then immediately reached an open grassy area, where I came to a junction where another footpath 'crossed' the track. The path I was following 'straight on' forked slightly left from the track here, while the crossing path followed the track for a hundred yards or so before turning half-right (a sign on a tree explained this, I already knew what I needed to do because I went wrong here once, many years ago). After another half mile or so the path along the valley bottom crossed a drive, near some farm buildings to my left. A short distance further on, the path merged with a bridleway coming in sharply from the right. I continued straight on along the bridleway, which continued to follow the same valley bottom.
The path along Twigside Bottom
The path along Twigside Bottom
The path along Twigside Bottom
The path along Twigside Bottom
The bridleway along Twigside Bottom
The bridleway along Twigside Bottom
The bridleway along Twigside Bottom
The bridleway along Twigside Bottom
After another quarter of a mile or so, shortly after a bridleway went off to the right, I turned left along another bridleway that followed a track heading to Harecramp Cottages. After another quarter of a mile, immediately after the field to my right ended and just before I would have reached the cottages, I turned right through a metal kissing-gate in the hedge. I then followed a faint path through a large empty pasture, which sloped gently up to my left, to reach Chequers Lane on the far side. Across the lane a bridleway continued, running alongside Hanger Wood on my right. The bridleway started quite level, then gradually began to rise gently uphill, steepening a bit just before reaching the end of the wood. On leaving the wood, the bridleway turned right and followed a hedgerow on my right, still uphill but levelling out after two or three hundred yards. The bridleway was now on a farm track - at one point a Red Kite flew across the track at about head height, just a few yards in front of me! After a few hundred yards, the track ended at a track T-junction. I turned left here along another track, which after a few hundred yards brought me to Cadmore End (there were nice views to the right along here). I then turned left along Church Road, passing the church and then the cricket club on my right, before arriving back at my car.
The bridleway to Harecramp Cottages
The path after I turned right near Harecramp Cottages
The bridleway just inside Hanger Wood after I crossed Chequers Lane
The bridleway just inside Hanger Wood
The bridleway continuing through Hanger Wood
The bridleway continuing from Hanger Wood
The bridleway continuing from Hanger Wood
The bridleway into Cadmore End, after I turned left at a T-junction of tracks
View right, from near Cadmore End
This was a very pleasant walk, despite the grey conditions. It wasn't too demanding, with a few small ups and downs but only one steepish descent (into Twigside Bottom) and one long but not steep climb (at the end, getting back to Cadmore End). I'd be perfectly happy to walk it again. I was very relieved to find that the paths were no muddier than they usually are at this time of year. A months or so ago, parts of the Chilterns had a month's worth of rain in about four hours (Dunstable was among the places that had some flooding), and we've had quite a lot more rainy weather since then. I feared that some of the paths along the valley bottoms might be impassable, but they were fine.