Pete's Walks- Coombe Hill and the Hampdens (page 3 of 5)
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.
At the end of the field I turned right and followed a path just inside the edge of Kingsfield Wood - this ended by running through a garden to reach a road on the edge of the hamlet of Green Hailey. I turned left along the road, away from the hamlet, and after a few hundred yards turned right onto a bridleway that ran between a wood on my left and a field on my right. Where the field ended, the bridleway turned left, and now ran southwards through the wood, with part of the Chiltern escarpment sloping down on my right. This was a very pleasant and easy stretch, the bridleway being wide and level as it ran through the attractive beech wood.
The footpath just inside Kingsfield Wood, after I turned right
The road from Green Hailey
The bridleway to Parslow's Hillock, after I turned right
The bridleway to Parslow's Hillock, after it turned left
The bridleway to Parslow's Hillock, after it turned left
The bridleway to Parslow's Hillock, after it turned left
The bridleway brought me to the hamlet of Parslow's Hillock, where it turned left for a few yards along a drive to reach a road. I turned right for a very short distance, then turned left at a crossroads by the Pink and Lily pub and followed Lily Bottom Lane for about a third of a mile. On reaching a property on the left, I followed a bridleway along its drive, then turned right as I entered Monkton Wood. This path ran just inside the wood, initially with gardens close by on my right, and for much of the way there was a (fairly recently installed) fence on my left.
The Pink and Lily pub at Parslow's Hillock
Lily Bottom Lane
The path through Monkton Wood
The path through Monkton Wood
The path through Monkton Wood
After about half a mile, shortly after a path came in on the left, I turned left when a bridleway crossed the path. The bridleway ran northeast through Monkton Wood for another half mile or so, ending at a crossroads surrounded by woods on all sides. I went diagonally across the crossroads to where fingerposts indicated two footpaths started at a gate, and took the left-most of the paths. This ran for about a quarter of a mile through Hampden Coppice (I kept left at a fork in the path) before emerging at the cricket pitch at Hampden Common. I went straight on along the edge of the pitch to reach a lane.
The bridleway through Monkton Wood, after I turned left
The bridleway through Monkton Wood
The path through Hampton Coppice
The cricket pitch at Hampden Common