ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 1, Dunstable Downs and Markyate
OS Explorer Maps required: 182
Approximate distance: 12.0 miles
Start at the new visitor centre (‘Chilterns Gateway Centre’) on Dunstable Downs (TL 007196)
CLOCKWISE
From the car park, take the surfaced path going left of the Chilterns Gateway Centre. Follow the surfaced path as it goes right, along the top of Dunstable Downs, for 200-300 yards, then turn right through the old car park to the road. Take the track on the opposite side of the road (ignoring the footpath going further left across the golf course). Shortly after going past metal barriers, turn right on a short path through trees. On the far side of the trees, with Kensworth Quarry directly in front of you, turn right. When the path reaches the tarmac drive to the quarry, turn right for a hundred yards or so, then turn left on a path with a belt of trees on your left. Continue on this path as it turns left through the trees, and on the far side turn right along the edge of a field. The path follows the field boundary as it curves to the left and descends into a valley. In the valley bottom the path switches to the right side of the hedge and follows a farm track. The path then bears right through another wood, and then climbs a steep flight of steps beside the quarry fence. Go through a metal kissing gate and turn right. Where a small wood on your right ends, bear fractionally right to keep the edge of a young plantation on your LEFT. Follow the edge of the plantation as it bears left. At a waymarked path junction, go straight ahead on a (usually muddy) track. This soon emerges into a rough pasture, where you turn right to reach a stile and the churchyard of St Mary’s church, Kensworth (TL 032191).
Follow the faint path through the churchyard, passing just right of the church, and go through the gate. Follow the lane to the left, and at the junction take the lane going half-right. This turns to the right. When it then turns left, go straight on, following a footpath steeply downhill into a valley and up the other side. The path continues uphill between hedges, then follows a drive to reach the main road in Kensworth.
Turn left and follow the road through the village, the recreation ground on the right. Just past the village school on the right, cross Spratts Lane and after another 150 yards or so take the footpath on the right. This crosses a paddock to a gate, then goes initially half left across a further paddock. Just before reaching some overhead wires it turns right to reach a hedge, where it goes left alongside the hedge. Continue across the next field, passing immediately left of a copse in the middle of the field. Go through a hedge gap and across a corner of the next field, through another hedge gap and continue with a hedge on your left (along here you may see Markyate Cell across the valley on your left). Continue straight on alongside the hedge through playing fields and then along a short alley to reach a road in Markyate (TL 057166).
Turn left for about 100 yards then take the path on the right (which starts through a row of tall bollards or posts), which soon joins a road going downhill to a junction with Buckwood Road (the main street in Markyate is a short distance to your left). Turn right. Take the footpath immediately beyond the last house on the left. At a fork in the path after about 100 yards, bear right to follow a hedge line rising diagonally across the hillside. At the far corner of the field, go through a kissing-gate and continue ahead with a hedge on your left to reach a lane in Roe End, where you turn right. Where the surfaced lane ends, turn left along a hard-surfaced track (ignoring the bridleway continuing ahead), soon passing Gravelpit Wood on your right. At a crossroads of tracks turn right. After passing a farm, stay on the track as it heads into a wood. At a point where the track bears left, a fingerpost indicates where the right of way continues along a path ahead. Follow the path until it emerges on the other side of the wood. Turn right along the edge of the wood. Go through a gap in the field corner to reach Studham Common (TL 031156).
Turn left along the top of the common. Cross two roads, then follow the path as it bears slightly right through bushes and trees and descends to a path junction (in a more open area) where you turn left. Pass the cottages and school on your right and continue to another road, where you turn right. At the junction at the top of the hill, turn left and follow the lane to the church. Go through the churchyard, passing just left of the church, to an old gate in the corner of the churchyard. Then take the path going left, which goes over a stile and crosses a small pasture (following a fence on your right) to reach a wood. Turn right on the bridleway just inside the wood. On leaving the wood, the bridleway goes slightly right (almost straight on), following a hedge on your right. After the second field, you will soon have the tall wire boundary fence of Whipsnade Zoo on your left. At the end of the bridleway, turn left along the former lane between Holywell and Whipsnade. Just after passing some tall bollards, take the footpath on the right, which follows a hedge on your left. Go through the kissing gate in the field corner and turn left, following a hedge on your right to the church at Whipsnade (TL 012179).
Follow the path through the churchyard, with the church on your right. Turn left across the green, with garden boundaries to your left, then follow the directions on the brown tourist signs, across the road and along a drive beside the green to the entrance to Whipsnade Tree Cathedral . Keep to the path along the boundary to the left of the Tree Cathedral, and continue on this path as it follows a fence downhill through a pasture (usually containing an unusual breed of sheep). At the bottom of the hill, go through a gate and turn right on a bridleway. When this emerges above a car park on Bison Hill (good views of Ivinghoe Beacon and the Vale of Aylesbury), turn right, go through a kissing gate and follow the hedge or fence on your right along the top of the downs. You will pass a wood on your right - when it turns right, continue ahead to the kissing gate in the far corner. Follow the path ahead and then head across the grass back to the Chilterns Gateway Centre.
The Chilterns Gateway Centre is situated at the highest point in Bedfordshire, 798 feet above sea level on Dunstable Downs. It cost £2.5 million pounds to build, and was officially opened by TV presenter Michaela Strachan on 23rd May 2007. It provides much improved facilities for visitors to the Downs, including a National Trust run café and a gift shop. Amongst other displays on its walls is the only one I know of for the Chiltern Way. The visitor centre is at the heart of the Chilterns Gateway Project “a flagship environmentally-led regeneration initiative steered by a partnership between Bedfordshire County Council and The National Trust”.
Dunstable Downs are a steep section of the Chiltern escarpment, lying immediately southwest of Dunstable. The views from the top of the Downs extend for up to 40 miles on a clear day, over the Vale of Aylesbury and as far as Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The London Gliding Club is based at the foot of the scrub covered slopes, so gliders are usually to be seen soaring overhead, often competing for air space with hang gliders and paragliders that launch from the top of the Downs. Kite flying is also a very popular activity here. The Downs are a very popular local attraction, and were voted one of the ‘Seven wonders of the East’ by viewers of the BBC’s regional Look East programme.
Whipsnade Zoo is owned by the Zoological Society of London and was opened to the public in 1931, the world’s first open zoological park. It covers almost 600 acres of chalk down land on the northern edge of the Chilterns. There are over 6,000 animals at the zoo, including many endangered species. Unlike some zoos, most of the animals are kept within sizeable enclosures, while others (such as wallabies, Muntjac deer and peacocks) are allowed to roam freely around the zoo. Several animals are part of international breeding programs, helping to ensure the survival of endangered species.
Whipsnade Tree Cathedral is a 9.5 acre garden planted with trees in the shape of a Cathedral, with grassy avenues representing the nave, chancel, transepts, etc. It was created by Edmund Kell Byth as an act of ‘Faith, Hope and Reconciliation’ in remembrance of two of his friends, Arthur Bailey and John Bennett, who were killed in World War I. Work started in 1932 and continued in stages, the first religious service being held in 1953. In 1960 it was donated to the National Trust. Religious services continue to be held occasionally, by several different denominations. There are three houses in Whipsnade named after Blyth and his two friends.
Markyate Cellis the site of a Benedictine Priory founded in 1145, although the present house is nineteenth century. An earlier house on the site was the home of Lady Katherine Ferrers, the celebrated ‘highwaywoman’ – the classic film ‘The Wicked Lady’ starring Margaret Lockwood was based (very loosely) upon her life.