Pete's Walks - Bradenham, Speen, Hughenden (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.
Lunch over, I followed a lane along another side of the cricket pitch. A little way after this turned left a footpath started on the right (a fingerpost showed where a bridleway started a little further along the lane), going a few yards down a driveway to a metal kissing-gate, then following a hedge on my right through a small enclosure. I'm fairly sure I've only walked this path a couple of times before. The path then stayed beside the hedge through a huge open field (part of Downley Common according to the OS map), where there was a far-reaching view over a very wooded section of the Chilterns - could also see the Dashwood Mausoleum and St Lawrence's church on West Wycombe Hill. The path then dropped downhill a short way through Lee's Wood. At a path junction in the valley bottom I turned left along a broad strip of grass with the wood either side. This brought me to a surfaced drive (from Cookshall Farm), where I turned left (now back on more familiar territory). Where the drive turned left, I went straight on through a parking area and past a couple of huts on my right and followed a path downhill, initially through some maize but then through stubble with a nice view ahead of me towards the area around West Wycombe. The path crossed a track, rose uphill slightly through a small plantation, then followed a hedge on my right. It went through another small plantation, then continued downhill along the right edge of a field, heading towards a railway line.
The footpath from Downley
The footpath from Downley
Zoomed-in shot of the Dashwood Mausoleum and St Lawrence's church on West Wycombe Hill, from the footpath from Downley
The footpath from Downley
The path from Downley, now in Lee's Wood
The path after I turned left in Lee's Wood
The drive from Cookshall Farm
The path heading towards West Wycombe
The path heading towards West Wycombe
The path heading towards West Wycombe
The path heading towards West Wycombe
The path heading towards West Wycombe
The path heading towards West Wycombe
I then turned right along a path next to the railway line, so I had the railway embankment on my left and a hedgerow to my right (I'd only walked this path by the railway twice before, once in the opposite direction). After about a third of a mile I reached a path junction (just after a seat) where I turned right. This path rose steadily uphill through Kit's wood before eventually turning left at the top of the slope - in 2024 this uphill hadn't been as long as I expected, but today it seemed longer than I remembered! After a while the path widened when it merged with another path, coming in sharply from the right, and a few hundred yards later I came to a path junction where I went straight on (I normally turn right here on my other routes).
The path alongside the railway, after I turned right
The path alongside the railway
Near the start of the path rising up through Kit's Wood
The path through Kit's Wood
The path through Kit's Wood
The path through Kit's Wood
The path continuing through Kit's Wood, just after the path junction where I went straight on
The path continuing through Kit's Wood
The path gradually turned from north to northwest, and at some point I moved from Kit's Wood to Pimlode's Wood. After a few hundred yards there was a nice bit of Beech wood as the path dropped downhill. There was a small area of conifers just before I reached a track and the wall around Bradenham Manor, where I went left and made my way back to the car park where I'd started.
The path continuing through Pimlode's Wood
The path continuing through Pimlode's Wood
The path beside the boundary wall of Bradenham Manor
This was a very enjoyable walk, although it was a very warm day - it was 25 degrees centigrade at the end of the walk, I wouldn't have wanted it any hotter. Most of the way there was a slight breeze taking the edge of the temperature, but it seemed to have gone after I had lunch and I was very hot and sweaty when I got back to my car. It's quite an up-and-down route, which is why it took me about five hours and 10 minutes - nowadays I'm almost as slow going down steepish slopes as I am going up them. There were plenty of nice views over typical Chilterns hills, valleys and woods, so it's definitely a walk I'd like to do again.