Pete's Walks - Cholesbury and Herberts Hole (page 6 of 6)
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.
Across the lane, the path went through a gravelled area with the farmhouse to my left. It then went half-left rising gently uphill between a high hedgerow and a fence to my right. At the end of the field on my right, the footpath turned right behind a hedgerow and soon levelled out. In the next field corner I turned left through a metal gate, the path continuing between a fence on my left and a tall hedgerow. Beyond this field the path crossed a huge field - the path had not been reinstated after ploughing and harrowing, so I just headed to the leftmost of a line of trees (where I knew there was a waymark indicating that the path went right there). When I reached the waymark I turned right and followed the line of trees) to reach a marker post on a track, where I turned left to reach the farm buildings at Dundridge Manor. I turned right to pass the buildings on my left. Where a new fence on the left ended, I went half-left to a gap in a hedgerow, where I turned left behind the hedge and followed a path that soon brought me to the drive to Dundridge Manor. I turned right and when the drive forked I went left (as that was where the footpath sign was).
Near the start of the path from Three Gates Farm
The path from Three Gates Farm
The path from Three Gates Farm, after it turns right
The path from Three Gates Farm, after it turns left
The path from Three Gates Farm (I just headed to the tree on the left, where I knew there was a waymark post)
The same path continuing towards the farm at Dundridge Manor
The path just after the farm at Dundridge Manor
Path at Dundridge Manor
I turned right along the road for a very short way, then took a footpath on the other side. This crossed part of a meadow, then went through two wooden kissing-gates and followed a paddock fence to a third such gate. The path went half-left across this paddock to a stile, and continued in the same direction to reach a corner of the next paddock in the bottom of a small valley. The path then ran between garden boundaries on my left and a hedge or fence on my right. When it emerged into a corner of a very large arable field, I continued along the valley bottom beside a hedgerow on my left. On eventually reaching the end of this and the following similar field, the path continued along the valley between fences on either side. On coming to a path T-Junction (actually a slightly staggered crossroads), I turned left and followed the path uphill a short way to reach the road through Cholesbury. I then just had to turn right and follow the road back to where I'd parked.
The start of the path back to Cholesbury
The path back to Cholesbury, going through the paddocks
The path back to Cholesbury
The path back to Cholesbury
The path back to Cholesbury
The path after I turned left, heading uphill to Cholesbury
The road through Cholesbury
I had enjoyed this walk when I did it twice last year, and it was possibly even better on this fine Spring day. Once again I particularly liked the roller-coaster nature of the first half of the route, where the only flat sections were the unavoidable short road walks in the villages. There were some very pleasant views along or across the valleys on this section. The second half of the route was much gentler (the OS map shows I crossed only half as many contour lines as on the outward half) and had fewer good views, but was still very pleasant and fairly typical of this part of the Chilterns. This was my third walk in six days (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday) but for some reason I felt really good today, getting up the hills easier than I usually do and completing the walk in four hours, 20 minutes quicker than my two previous walks on this route. Strange how it goes, as this was the opposite to my walk on Monday when I felt lethargic right from the start!