Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill, Cobblershill, Dunsmore (page 1 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 did this walk of about 7.6 miles on Monday, 11th November, 2024. It was a new route for me, but entirely on paths I've walked before on other routes. There were a couple of paths that I'd only walked once before, and two or three paths that I'd not walked for 10-15 years.
I started walking about 10.15am, from the car park at Coombe Hill (grid reference SP 852063). I went through the gate by the entrance to the car park and took the leftmost of three paths, which stayed close to a fence and hedge on the left. After a few hundred yards I turned left through a metal kissing-gate, joining the Ridgeway National Trail - I would now be following its white acorn signs for almost a mile. A path took me through a beech wood on Lodge Hill to a road (the one to the car park), where I turned right for a couple of hundred yards. The Ridgeway then continued along a path starting on the other side of the road, leading through Linton's Wood and Goodmerhill Wood. After about half a mile the path turned right along a track that soon started to drop downhill (heading towards Buckmoorend).
The start of the path from the Coombe Hill car park
The path from the Coombe Hill car park
The Ridgeway in Lodge Wood, after I turned left through a metal kissing-gate
The Ridgeway in Lodge Wood
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
The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood, after it turns right
The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood, starting to descend towards Buckmoorend
The Ridgeway in Goodmerhill Wood, descending towards Buckmoorend (I turned left near where the Ridgeway goes out of view)
Where a bridleway crossed the Ridgeway (at the bottom of the wood) I turned left. I was now heading towards Little Hampden. The bridleway sloped fairly gently uphill through what was now Chisley Wood. Somewhere after the bridleway levelled out I saw a Hare, but it scampered off before I could get a photograph. The bridleway then turned right at a junction (there was an arrow on a tree on the left that was hidden by leaves) and soon reached the end of an old lane coming from Buckmoorend. Several paths meet here, but I stayed on the bridleway as it went though an open gateway ahead (or to the right) and continued between a wood on my left and some arable fields. I went straight on when a hedge came in from the right, but when I got to within a couple of hundred yards of another hedgerow the bridleway turned left into the wood (no sign or waymark, this narrow entrance into the wood could easily be missed). I then soon came to a junction where a path came in from the left and the bridleway turned right, soon bringing me to the hamlet of Little Hampden.
The start of the bridleway from near Buckmoorend to Little Hampden
The bridleway from near Buckmoorend to Little Hampden
The bridleway from near Buckmoorend to Little Hampden
The bridleway from near Buckmoorend to Little Hampden
The bridleway from near Buckmoorend to Little Hampden, after pasing the end of the old lane from Buckmoorend
The bridleway from near Buckmoorend to Little Hampden, after turning left from the field
The bridleway from near Buckmoorend just before reaching Little Hampden (after turning right where a path comes in from the left)