Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill, the Hampdens, Bacombe Hill (page 2 of 3)
After admiring the views from the top of Whiteleaf Hill, I continued along the Ridgeway (which turns left here) for another hundred yards or so, before finally leaving it by turning left onto a bridleway. This ran just inside the edge of a wood with a field on my right. I kept right at a narrow fork, and on eventually reaching a point by the next field corner, I turned right, still just inside the wood and close to the same field. After a fairly short distance I turned left, on a good path between Sergeant's Wood on my left and a field of what I think was Flax on my right. Again I had to turn right along the far edge of the field along another path just inside a wood.. I then had to pass through a garden to reach a road, seeing a female Muntjac on a lawn as I did so. I turned left along the road for maybe a quarter of a mile, before taking a path on the right, again between a wood on my left and a field of Flax. I then entered the wood, and turned left, following a broad bridleway through the trees for about half a mile to reach the hamlet of Parslow's Hillock.
Path beside Sergeant's Wood
The path to Parslow's Hillock
On reaching the minor road in Parslow's Hillock I turned right, then turned left into Lily Bottom Lane, starting next to the famous Pink and Lily pub, and after almost half a mile turned left along a drive (by a Chiltern Way sign). Immediately after the garden on the right, I turned right into Monkton Wood where I immediately spotted what turned out to be a Riband Wave moth. There was then a lengthy section of walking through beech trees, with paddocks or meadows close by on my right, before I turned left and followed a bridleway beside a fence (the bridleway keeps to the right of the fence, but soon there is a pernissive footpath to the left of the fence) through the wood. Here I spotted what I'm fairly sure was a White Admiral butterfly, but it gave me no chance to take a photo. After going diagonally over a crossroads on the edge of the wood, I followed another woodland path (the leftmost of two) to reach the village of Hampden Common by its Cricket ground.
Lily Bottom Lane
The path through Monkton Wood, heading towards Hampden Common
Path across the crossroads beyond Monkton Wood, close to the cricket ground at Hampden Common
On the far side of the cricket ground I turned left and immediately came to a road junction. I continued down the drive or private road opposite, then took a footpath on the right. This is always a very pleasant path to Great Hampden, soon passing a wood on the left then crossing two large fields to reaching the village via the churchyard. I turned left for a few yards, then turned right (back onto the Chiltern Way). As I passed in front of Hampden House, I managed to trip up and fall quite heavily, the first time I've ever done so on any of these walks, as far as I can remember. I had my camera in my hand at the time and put most of my weight on it as I landed, but apart from some mud embedded in a couple of places it seems to have survived the experience. My own fault, of course, I should have been looking where I was going instead of thinking about where I could best photograph the house and its Ha-ha.
The path from Hampden Common to Great Hampden
The path from Hampden Common to Great Hampden - lots of lovely Field Pansies here
Approaching Great Hampden church
Not a very good shot of the Ha-ha at Hampden house
Hampden House
My route continued on through Lady Hampden's Wood, still following part of the Chiltern Way, and then downhill through a large cornfield to reach a minor road (the one I'd crossed near Chequers earlier) running through the valley of Hampden Bottom. On the other side, a path ran gently up the other side of the valley through a narrow woodland strip called Coach Hedgerow. The path then turned right and crossed a small corn field and a meadow to reach a carved wooden seat by a wood, my lunch spot. As well as the usual fine view back over Hampden Bottom, I saw several Ringlet and Marbled White Butterflies as I ate, and there were more Pyramidal Orchids in the long grass beside me.
The path through Lady Hampden's Wood
The path across Hampden Bottom
The path through Coach Hedgerow
Path from Coach Hedgerow towards Little Hampden (my lunch spot was where the path meets the trees)
The path continued through a narrow plantation, before turning right along the edge of a field on a permissive path to enter Warren Wood, where I almost immediately turned left at a path junction and continued on the short distance to Little Hampden. Here I left the Chiltern Way, turning left along the only lane to its termination by the Rising Sun pub (update 23/02/17: sadly now closed). From the small parking area here a long bridleway then went half-right through more woods, eventually descending to another valley bottom before turning half right and going up the other side of the valley. At the top of the hillside, I turned left onto a crossing bridleway, which soon soon became a surfaced track leading into the isolated hamlet of Dunsmore.
Bridleway from Little Hampden towards Dunsmore
Track leading into Dunsmore