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.
Near the end of the lane, by what was formerly the Rising Sun pub (last house on left), I took a bridleway forking right (a footpath went further right from the same point) and followed it northeast-wards through more woodland for about half a mile, gradually descending to reach a valley bottom. Here I went straight on at a path crossroads, the bridleway now heading more eastwards as it rose up the other side of the valley, now in Scrub Wood. I followed the bridleway all the way to its end near the top of the slope, where I turned left onto another bridleway.
The start of the bridleway going northeast from Little Hampden
The bridleway going northeast from Little Hampden
The bridleway going northeast from Little Hampden
The bridleway continuing up the other side of the valley
The bridleway continuing up the other side of the valley
The same bridleway as it nears the top of the slope
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.
The bridleway after I turned left at a junction at the top of the slope, heading towards Dunsmore<
The bridleway to Dunsmore
Dunsmore church
Lane through 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, looking for a path going to what was now my left through the trees (it's marked by yellow arrows on trees). Unfortunately I couldn't see it (after a while I turned back and looked a second time, but couldn't see either yellow arrows nor signs of a path anywhere through the leaves on the ground) so I continued along the path from Dunsmore. After two or three hundred yards I spotted a feint path in the leaves to my left (though there was no way mark or footpath sign). This short path went through the woods for maybe one hundred yards (there was a footpath sign at the other end, but I couldn't see any signs for the original path), then 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 on the edge of the wood.
The bridleway from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The bridleway from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
The footpath from Dunsmore to Coombe Hill
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 I turned left along a broad strip of grass with bushes and trees either side. Near 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
Approaching the monument on Coombe Hill
The Vale of Aylesbury from Coombe Hill
The path back to the car park on Coombe Hill
Looking back at the Boer War monument on Coombe Hill
The path back to the car park on Coombe Hill
This is one of my very favourite walks in the Chilterns, and it was a real pleasure to walk it again. When I walked it about fourteen months ago, it was the first time since 2017 and I said then that I wouldn't wait so long before I walked it again. I haven't, and I don't intend waiting too long to do it again. It's such a good walk I'd happily walk it every year.