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, so I just ploughed through the knee-high crop of corn, heading to the leftmost of a line of trees (where I knew there used to be a waymark post indicating that the path went right there). When I reached the tree there was no sign of the waymark post, but I turned right and followed some tractor tracks through the corn, to reach a track a little right of a waymark post. 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).
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
Further along the same path
The path from Three Gates Farm (No sign of a path through the crop, I just headed to the tree in the centre of this shot, where I knew there was a waymark post)
The same path continuing towards the farm at Dundridge Manor
Passing 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 a wooden gate and followed a paddock fence to another 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, going through the paddocks
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 really enjoyed this walk the three previous times I'd done it, and if anything I enjoyed it even more today. The perfect walking weather on this glorious Spring day probably helped! 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. I'm sure it won't be too long before I walk this route again.