Post-walk comments

I actually enjoyed the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail much more than I’d expected to. When I set off to walk it, I had a couple of slight reservations about it. Firstly, I thought that as it tried to follow the boundary of the Ashridge estate, it might seem a rather artificial walk, using paths because they followed the boundary rather than because they were a pleasure to walk. This proved not to be the case at all – all the paths taken by this walk were very enjoyable and I never got the sense that the walk was going somewhere just because it had to as that was where the boundary went. It went through a couple of farm yards and passed a water works, but otherwise didn’t pass anything that detracted from the pleasure of the walk.

My second reservation was that I might be over familiar with the route. Living locally, I must have done at least a hundred walks in Ashridge over the years. In particular, I have devised my own long circular route round the area (although including Pitstone Hill) which I have done many times now (see my Alternative Ashridge Walk). I fully expected a lot of the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail to coincide with my route, but in fact I was pleasantly surprised how little the two routes did coincide. Much of the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail was entirely new to me. The only bit that I found a bit boring was the main track heading from the monument towards Ivinghoe Beacon – but this would be a perfectly pleasant walk though beech woods to anyone new to it.

You can just about see some Fallow deer and fawns, on a track near Northchurch

So, despite the heavy showers or rain towards the end of the day, I really enjoyed this walk. As it is so close to where I live, I am sure that I will do it again sometime, possibly in the opposite direction. I always enjoy walking through the beech woods, and the sections through farmland added a nice bit of variety. There were some good views to be had at certain points on the route, especially from Ivinghoe Beacon. On this particular day I only saw Fallow deer twice and no Muntjac deer at all, which was slightly disappointing – I’m fairly sure there’d be more deer sightings if I did the walk another time.

Update - On 27th November 2006, I did this walk again but in the opposite direction, starting and finishing at the car park by the Monument and visitor centre. It was just as enjoyable walking the route in the anti-clockwise direction, although again I had one or two showers and it was very windy on Ivinghoe Beacon.

Further Update - I have since done this very enjoyable walk several times in both directions. For a brief description and photos of the walk in the anti-clockwise direction, see this walk I did on on 12th September 2009.