Pete's Walks- Lilley to Barton-le-Clay walk (page 1 of 6)
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 did this walk of about 14.5 miles on Friday, 15th July, 2016. This was a repeat of a walk I've done a few times now, from Lilley to Barton-le-Clay, then to the Pegsdon Hills and back to Lilley. It's one of my very favourite walks in the Chilterns - if I gave walks marks out of 10 this would get 9/10 every time. I hadn't walked it for four or five years (largely because of the post-viral fatigue or whatever lurgy it was that restricted my walks for almost three years), although I'd managed to do a 10-mile version of it a couple of times (which would also get a 9/10).
I parked in Lilley, almost opposite the Lilley Arms pub down a side lane starting near the village church (Grid Reference TL 118265). Starting walking about 9.40am, I went down the lane which soon deteriorated to a well-surfaced bridleway, running between hedgerows either side. After a few hundred yards it turned left as it reached Ward's Wood, following one side of the wood and then turning right to continue with another side of the wood to the right.
The lane out of Lilley ...
... which soon becomes just a bridleway
Further along the bridleway
The bridleway approaching Ward's Wood
The bridleway passing Ward's Wood
The bridleway, just before the junction where I turned left
Not too long after the wood ended I came to a junction where I turned left onto another bridleway. I could see it stretching ahead of me, to where it went gently uphill beside a wood on the left. I could also see a large party of schoolchildren coming towards me. At a pub meal not too long ago, I confessed that the only things I was frightened of meeting when out walking were bullocks, out of control and aggressive dogs, angry swans and schoolchildren (not necessarily in that order!). But this encounter passed off peacefully and I was soon at a bridleway crossroads at the top of the hill, where I turned right (I spotted some Borage here, which I remembered seeing here before). This bridleway followed a hedge on my left along the hilltop, and where the hedge ended I went left at a bridleway fork. I soon had another hedge on my left, and the bridleway dropped slightly downhill. After a few hundred yards I took a footpath on the right, which went up the side of Warden Hill - as I neared the top of the hill I saw my first Gatekeeper butterfly of 2016.
The bridleway after I turned left (you can see some of the schoolchildren approaching, with one of their teachers well to the front). At the top of the hill, I turned right beside the hedge on the skyline ...
... and this is looking back along the hedgerow (in my relief at surviving the schoolchidren, I forgot to take a photo as I walked along here)
The bridleway, where I forked left towards Warden Hill
The bridleway approaching Warden Hill
The footpath going up Warden Hill
On my last walk I had panoramic views of Milton Keynes, at the top of Warden Hill I had panoramic views of Luton (I know all the best beauty spots!). I continued along the footpath as it continued straight on (northwards), with a steep scrub-covered slope descending on my left but an arable field close by on the right.
View over Luton from Warden Hill
The footpath along the top of Warden Hill
The footpath along the top of Warden Hill
The footpath along the top of Warden Hill