Pete's Walks - Kensworth and Dunstable Downs (page 1 of 2)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer.
I did this roughly 6 mile circular walk on Sunday, 26th February 2012. This was my first walk for about a month due to bad weather and a couple of minor ailments. I still wasn't feeling 100%, so just went for this short local walk. It was a beautiful morning of clear blue skies, with a definite hint that Spring wasn't too far away (thank goodness!).
I left home at 11am and walked up Common Road, Kensworth, to just past Old Green End Farm, then took the path on the left that took me to Whipsnade Heath. On reaching the heath, I almost immediately turned right and followed a path through the trees, going right again at the next path junction. As I reached the huge and ancient Witches Beech, the path curved left, running close to a fence as it went slightly downhill to a road.
The path from Kensworth to Whipsnade Heath
The path from Kensworth to Whipsnade Heath
Whipsnade Heath
Witches Beech, Whipsnade Heath
Across the road, a bridleway continued between hedgerows. It came to a junction close to a corner of the huge green at Whipsnade, where I turned right onto another bridleway. This soon passed a mobile home park on the left, and a little further on passed through a wood.
The bridleway from Whipsnade Heath to Whipsnade
The bridleway from Whipsnade Heath to Whipsnade
The bridleway from Whipsnade to Whipsnade Downs
The bridleway from Whipsnade to Whipsnade Downs
Just after crossing the drive to Chute Farm, I noticed a sign on a gate on the left. Apparently the National Trust have opened a new path through Chute Wood, so I decided to follow it. Through the gate, the path just went round a semi-circle through the coniferous trees of the wood, to rejoin the bridleway from Whipsnade close to the gate where it reached the top of Whipsnade Downs. I turned right along the top of the downs, then turned left beside a fence, with a view over the Vale of Aylesbury ahead of me.
The National Trust's new permissive path through Chute Wood
The National Trust's new permissive path through Chute Wood
The National Trust's new permissive path through Chute Wood
The path along the top of Whipsnade Downs
View out over the Vale of Aylesbury - the fence and path here follow the boundary between Whipsnade Downs (left) and Dunstable Downs