Pete's Walks- North from Hambleden (page 4 of 4)
Short after passing the farmhouse, the bridleway turned right and ran between hedges or fences. This was initially dry but then started alternating every few yards between dry and very muddy. After several hundred yards, it reached Great Wood - the initial section here was very muddy. On reaching a valley bottom, the bridleway turned right along a surfaced drive, but I continued straight on along a footpath.
The bridleway from Upper Woodend Farm to Great Wood
The bridleway from Upper Woodend Farm to Great Wood
The bridleway continuing through Great Wood
The bridleway continuing through Great Wood
The bridleway continuing through Great Wood
The footpath continuing through Great Wood (just after the bridleway went left in a valley bottom)
The footpath continuing through Great Wood
I then a made a mistake (which I also made last time I did this walk in 2023) by turning left after a few hundred yards onto another footpath (yellow waymark on a post). This path ran through the wood to reach a fingerpost by a surfaced drive, where I turned right (the finger pointing this way said 'footpath' though it's not shown as such on the map). If I'd kept straight on at the first junction (as I did in 2014) I would have joined this same drive further on (still, by walking two sides of a triangle here I had balanced out not walking from and to the car park in Hambleden, so I think I still walked 9 miles today). On reaching a track crossroads (with another fingerpost), I turned left along a broad track for a short distance to reach the edge of the wood, with a view ahead over the Hambleden Valley.
The start of the path after I (incorrectly) turned left
The path continuing through Great Wood
The drive after I turned right
The track after I turned left, soon to exit the wood
The path continued ahead between fields to reach a corner of a wood (Ridge Wood is the nearest name I can see on the OS map). There was a nice view over the Hambleden Valley around Pheasant's Hill here. The path kept just inside the edge of the wood as it dropped down into the valley (I almost missed a turning near the start where the path forked right from what seemed a grassy path going straight on). Beyond the wood I joined a track that continued ahead between hedgerows (I saw my first Lesser Celandine of 2025 here) to reach the minor road that runs through the Hambleden Valley. I then turned right and followed the road for a few hundred yards, then took a path going half-left across a water meadow next to the Hamble Brook. I then just had to turn left along a lane to return to where I'd parked.
The path starting to descend into the Hambleden valley
The path descending into the Hambleden valley
The path descending into the Hambleden valley
The path descending into the Hambleden valley
The path descending into the Hambleden valley
Lesser Celandine - these were the first I'd seen this year, but driving home I noticed that I'd walked straight past some at Skirmett!
The road into Hambleden
The path across the water meadow
The Hamble Brook in Hambleden
The lane heading towards Hambleden church
It took me about 3 hours and 55 minutes to walk the 9 miles, twenty minutes slower than when I last did it in 2023. I really am slowing down, I'm afraid. But I really enjoyed the walk, it was such a fine and sunny day it really did feel that Spring had arrived. Some people might think that too much of the route was in woodland, but those were the sections I enjoyed the most today. Thankfully, apart from the few bits I've mentioned, the paths were nowhere near as muddy as on most of my recent walks.