Pete's Walks - Pitstone Hill and Wigginton (page 1 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.
I did this circular walk of about 11.6 miles on Tuesday, 31st April 2026. It was a route I've walked many times before, in fact it is Walk 4 of my Chiltern Chain Walk, although today I walked it in the clockwise direction (I usually do it this way round, mainly to get most of the ups and downs over with early in the walk).
I parked in the car park for Pitstone Hill (grid reference SP 954148) and started walking about 10.15am, crossing the lane and following the Ridgeway national trail towards Steps Hill. The skies were very grey, as tthey would be for most of the walk. When I reached a path crossroads near the foot of Steps Hill, I turned right (leaving the Ridgeway) and followed a path alongside a fence on my right. After a while the path left the fence and started to rise gently uphill through an area of bushes. After going through a gate it continued up the now wooded hillside until it met a track (the main track between the Bridgewater Monument at Ashridge and Ivinghoe Beacon), where I turned right. After two or three hundred yards (just before reaching the kennels on Clipper Down) I forked right onto a track that dropped down a few yards through trees to a gate. Beyond the gate the footpath continued downhill along the edge of a large pasture.
The Ridgeway at the start of the walk, heading towards Steps Hill
The path after I turned right at the foot of Steps Hill
The path continuing uphill
The path continuing uphill
The track from near Ivinghoe Beacon to the Monument at Ashridge
View from Clipper Down to Aldbury Nowers
The start of the path descending Clipper Down
When the hedge on my right ended I emerged into a large open downland field, with a nice view ahead towards Aldbury and another to my right towards the woods of Aldbury Nowers. Near the bottom of the slope the path curved left to reach a gate in the field corner, a short path then bringing me to a surfaced drive, where I turned left towards Duncombe Farm. After a couple of hundred yards or so a footpath crossed the drive, and I turned half-right to cross a large field. Through a hedge gap on the far side the path turned half-right again to cross a smaller field, on the far side of which I turned left along a bridleway.
The path descending Clipper Down
The path descending Clipper Down
The path descending Clipper Down
The drive to Duncombe Farm
The path going half-right from the drive to Duncombe Farm
Further along the same path