Pete's Walks- Kensworth, Markyate, Studham, Whipsnade (page 1 of 3)
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.
Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk
I did this roughly 9.6 mile circular walk on Good Friday, 29th March 2013.
It was about 8 weeks since my last walk. I had had a very nasty virus (I thought at first it was just a cold and sore throat, but I was feverish for two or three days) which kept me off work for a week and left me feeling weak for the next couple of weeks, and then there were three or four weekends of rain or snow. I set out to do my Kensworth and Everywhere walk in the clockwise direction - I frequently do this walk after I've been ill or had a break from walking, as there are numerous points where I can cut it short if I'm not feeling too great. In fact my legs were feeling weak even before I set off, so it wasn't too surprising that I was feeling a bit rough after a couple of hours and decided to find a much quicker route home.
It was about 9.55am when I started walking from my home in Kensworth, heading out of the village along the Whipsnade Road. There were still patches of snow on the ground from the snowfall of the previous weekend. After a quarter of a mile or so, I turned left onto a footpath, crossing a large field currently used as a sheep pasture (I spotted a Red Kite ahead of me here), then following a track beside a meadow to reach Dovehouse Lane, where I turned right. The lane soon headed downhill to a valley bottom, where it ended at a junction with Buckwood Lane. I went a few yards right, then took a path on the other side of the lane, keeping left at a path junction after a few yards, and following the bottoms of some gardens in Holywell as the path went up the other side of the valley. It soon levelled out, still with gardens on my right.
Leaving Kensworth along the Whipsnade Road
The path from Whipsnade Road to Dovehouse Lane
Dovehouse Lane
The path from Buckwood Lane past the gardens of part of Holywell
The path from Buckwood Lane past the gardens of part of Holywell (the route continues left through the wood visible ahead)
I then turned left into a small wood. Beyond the wood the path crossed a huge ploughed field - I spotted three Buzzards here, and soon saw and heard a Skylark. The path continued past a another small wood on my left and then a solitary tree, before reaching Byslips Road. I went a short way left, then took a footpath on the other side - this followed an edge of Byslip Wood, initially with a garden on my right. On reaching the corner of the wood, I turned left on a path that followed the curving edge of the wood, with another huge ploughed field on my right. Somewhere along here the wood changed to Fareless Wood. I spotted another pair of Buzzards here, though just possibly they were the same ones I'd seen earlier.
The path from Holywell to Byslips Road, leaving the small wood
The path on the edge of Byslip Wood
The long path along Byslip and Fareless woods
The long path along Byslip and Fareless woods
Beyond the woods, the path passed the farm buildings at Buckwood Stubbs. The section of path was particularly snowy, and I remembered struggling through deep snow here once before (coincidentally, I have just been looking at an old map of the area and Buckwood was once a detached portion of the parish of Houghton Regis, which is several miles away on the other side of Dunstable - the name Buckwood only seems to occur in the name of the farm buildings and in Buckwood Road/Lane). The path continued along a farm track, until that turned right. The path then continued ahead, with a field boundary on my right, and eventually led to Buckwood Road where I turned right to reach the edge of Markyate.
A very snowy section of the path, by the farm buildings at Buckwood Stubbs
The path continuing towards Markyate
The path continuing towards Markyate
Buckwood Road approaching Markyate