Pete's Walks- Bison Hill and Totternhoe (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 followed the lane (I think it's Doolittle Lane) until it curved left, when I took a footpath going straight on across a corn field. On the other side of this field I crossed a bridge over a small stream (the hedges here were overgrown, I had to fight my way through them to get over the bridge). The path continued across another corn field, then across a corner of an unused field or enclosure to reach a road on the edge of Totternhoe.
Doolittle Lane (the next footpath starts at the bend just ahead)
The footpath from Doolittle Lane to Totternhoe (my route back to the edge of Dunstable more or less follows the skyline, from roughly just above where the path reaches the hedge)
The footpath from Doolittle Lane to Totternhoe
I went a short way right along the road, then turned left along a surfaced track where I had the village church and church hall on my left. Just past them I took a footpath going half-right across a large cattle pasture (another path went right here). I went through a metal kissing-gate in the opposite fence (there was an open gateway just a few feet to my left, so the cattle I could see at the left end of the first pasture could go into this second pasture too), and continued to the corner of this next pasture. In the corner I went through a gate, then turned left to cross another footbridge. I turned right along the edge of a meadow that had been mown (the hay was lying in rows, ready to be baled), and crossed another footbridge in the corner (there was some Chicory growing on the far side of the bridge). The path then crossed another corn field to reach another part of Totternhoe.
Totternhoe church
The path from near Totternhoe church
The path from near Totternhoe church
The path from near Totternhoe church
The path from near Totternhoe church
I crossed a road and took a surfaced track or drive, that was signposted 'Totternhoe Knolls'. When this turned right to end at the car park for Totternhoe Knolls, I went straight on along a track. I soon came to a T-junction, where I turned right onto another track (one of the numerous 'green lanes' around here) which rose up over a hill, with the sheer drop of an old chalk quarry over the fence and hedge on my left. The green lane continued down the other side of the hill to reach a junction with another track, where I turned left.
Passing the entrance to the Totternhoe Knolls car park
The start of the 'green lanes', after I turned right just after the Totternhoe Knolls car park
View over Totternhoe back to the Downs and Bison Hill (just right of centre - to its right, the bare slopes are part of Whipsnade Zoo, you can just make out the White Lion)
The green lane now going down hill to where I turned left (I then soon turned right, along a green lane between the hedges crossing this photo)
The green lane after I turned left
I soon came to a track crossroads, where I turned right onto another green lane, one which would take me the rest of the way to Dunstable. After a few yards I heard and then spotted a Yellowhammer - I've seen small flocks of them around here occasionally in winter months. After a few hundred yards I reached another track crossroads, where I went straight on. A bit further on I was actually in part of Dunstable, but didn't really see any houses behind the tall hedgerows and trees either side.
The green lane after I turned right
A male Yellowhammer
The green lane heading to Dunstable
The green lane heading to Dunstable
The green lane heading to Dunstable
The green lane heading to Dunstable