Pete's Walks- Hudnall Common, Dagnall and Ashridge (page 2 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.
I didn't go through the gate, but turned very sharply right onto a bridleway going along the edge of the last meadow. Beyond a garden on my left, the bridleway turned left, and ran between garden fences and a wire fence that separated me from a huge field on the right with some large white cattle in it (there was a very impressive white bull close to the fence when I did this walk the other way round). The bridleway then entered Hoo Wood, resplendent in its autumn colours. After a while the bridleway through the wood dropped quite steeply for a short distance to reach a gate on the edge of the wood. It then continued across a grassy field with some horse jumps in it, aiming for the far right corner. Away to my left I could see another group of Fallow does at the other end of this field.
Near the start of the path from Little Gaddesden to Dagnall, approaching Hoo Wood
The path through Hoo Wood
The path through Hoo Wood
Fallow deer in the large field after Hoo Wood
The path continuing across the large field after Hoo Wood
Beyond this field the bridleway crossed part of a field and then continued beside a hedgerow on my left. When I reached a drive (to Well Farm, on my left) I turned right for a hundred yards or so, but then turned left off the drive beside a hedgerow on my left. After a while I came to a junction where the bridleway turned right, but I went straight on, following a path across a field to reach the edge of a farm. The path used to go through the farmyard, but has sensibly been diverted to follow the hedge and fences round it. The path ended when it reached the main road through Dagnall.
The path continuing to Dagnall, shortly before the drive to Well Farm
The path continuing to Dagnall
Dagnall church
I turned left, soon passing the village church, and went straight on at a roundabout. I walked through a grassy area on the right of the road then, just after a pair of white gates either side of the road, I turned left onto a footpath that started along Hog Hall Lane, a roughly surfaced drive leading to a property named Hog Hall. I don't walk this path in this direction very often, as I find this first section to Hog Hall is a bit dull and tiresome compared to coming the other way (when its a fine path, with a good view ahead to the Whipsnade and Dunstable Downs all the way). But it wasn't too bad today, with a view right towards Ivinghoe Beacon and with some gorgeous autumn colouring in the hedgerows. The first half of the drive was flat, but then it went uphill at a steady gradient.
Dagnall - the drive to Hog Hall starts on the left, just after the white gates
The drive to Hog Hall
The drive to Hog Hall
Zoomed-in shot looking right, towards Ivinghoe Beacon - nice Autumn colours
On reaching the gates to Hog Hall, the path went left, following the house's hedge and then the edge of a field on my left. It then continued fairly gently uphill through an empty sheep pasture - there was an embankment crowned with some fine beech trees on the right, and I could hear another Fallow buck roaring away in the wood on the left. The gradient levelled off in the next sheep pasture, which led me to Ward's Hurst Farm. I went straight on here, following the well-signed route through the farmyard (six paths meet here) and then following the farm drive to its end on the Ringshall-Ivinghoe Beacon road.
The path continuing uphill towards Ward's Hurst Farm
Looking back from a little further along the path
Looking back from Ward's Hurst Farm
The drive from Ward's Hurst Farm