Pete's Walks - Great Kimble, Buckmoorend, Green Hailey (page 1 of 3)
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 7 miles on Friday, 24th July 2026. It was a repeat of a walk I first did in March 2022, but in the opposite direction (clockwise). It was the first time I'd walked the route clockwise, and there were a couple of paths that I'd be walking in this direction for the first time.
I parked in the lay-by at Great Kimble (Grid Reference SP 825058) - the lay-by is just south of the church, on the other side of the road. I started walking about 9.55am, taking the bridleway that starts by the northern end of the lay-by. This went steadily uphill, initially between garden boundaries and then between hedgerows. After a few hundred yards there was a metal kissing-gate where a path forked left through a large open area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes. It was slightly less steep now. At a fork in the path I kept left (the other path headed up Chequers Knap) and after a few hundred yards more the path ended when it met part of the Ridgeway national trail. I turned left along the Ridgway, following it through a small area of trees and then a short way uphill to a gate. The Ridgeway then continued across a large empty pasture (there are sometimes cows or sheep here) to another gate.
Near the start of the bridleway that begins by the lay-by in Great Kimble
Further along the bridleway
The start of the path that forks left from the bridleway
Further along the same path, near Chequers Knap
The Ridgeway, after I turned left at the end of the path - this section of the Ridgeway is marked Cradle Footpath on the OS map, but I have never been able to find out why
View towards the Vale of Aylesbury, from the Ridgeway
The Ridgeway continuing across an empty pasture - everywhere was very brown today as there had been no rain for 3-4 weeks and a long period of hot (or very hot) weather
The Ridgeway then ran for several hundred yards between a fence and Maple Wood on my right, with Chequers over to my left with Coombe Hill behind it. Eventually I went through another gate, and continued along the Ridgeway as it crossed the grounds of Chequers, at one point crossing a drive close to a gatehouse. On reaching a road I crossed over and, leaving the Ridgeway, took the lane through the hamlet of Buckmoorend (soon passing the farm shop on my right). I spotted my first Meadow Cranesbill of 2026 here.
The Ridgeway continuing past Maple Wood, with Chequers over to the left
The Ridgeway continuing past Maple Wood, with Chequers over to the left
Chequers, with Coombe Hill behind it
The Ridgeway continuing through the grounds of Chequers
The Ridgeway continuing through the grounds of Chequers
The lane through Buckmoorend
Meadow Cranesbill, the first I've seen in 2026
After leaving the tiny hamlet behind, I continued along the lane for a few hundred yards until a point where two paths went off to the right (a permissive path came in on the left here). I took the leftmost of the two paths, which went gently uphill through Hengrove Wood (the other path seems equally well-used but isn't a public right of way). After two or three hundred yards, I turned right at a waymark post. This path dropped downhill, and at the bottom of the slope merged with the other path I'd seen. A hundred yards or so further on I came to another waymark post, where I turned left and followed a path gently uphill through what was now Widnell Wood. After several hundred yards a broad path dropped downhill, but I continued straight on (despite arrows indicating I could go either way, the broad path is not shown on the OS map as a public right of way).
The lane continuing from Buckmoorend
The first path through Hengrove Wood
The path after I turned right in Hengrove Wood
The path through Widnell Wood, after I kept left at the bottom of the slope and then turned left at a path junction
The path through Widnell Wood
The path through Widnell Wood