Pete's Walks - Kensworth and Dunstable Downs (page 3 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 went through the gate and walked straight on, but turned left just before reaching the car park. I continued straight on down a hedge-lined bridleway - this can get very muddy, here, and it was the only bit of today's route where there were a couple of muddy patches. I followed the bridleway for several hundred yards until it passed a bungalow on the left. Immediatelty after this I turned left onto a footpath, which was soon running along the right edge of a large field containing some Jacob's Sheep. Beyond this, the path passed to the right of Whipsnade Tree Cathedral.
Ivinghoe Beacon from Bison Hill
The start of the bridleway from Bison Hill to Whipsnade
The bridleway from Bison Hill to Whipsnade
The bridleway from Bison Hill to Whipsnade
The path to Whipsnade Tree Cathedral
Whipsnade Tree Cathedral
From the entrance to the Tree Cathedral I went straight on along a track with houses to my left and part of the large and irregular common to my right. I crossed over the single road that passes through Whipsnade, and crossed more of the common as I headed slightly left towards the brick-built village church. From the entrance of the church I continued close to the edge of the common, then after crossing a drive I headed downhill towards the entrance of the Old Hunter's Lodge (on the other side of the road). I went a few yards along the road past some gates (which in theory can be used to close the road, but never are nowadays), then turned half-right down an old track.
Whipsnade
Whipsnade, after I crossed the road
Whipsnade church
Part of the common near Whipsnade church
View from the common over the Old Hunter's Lodge to Whipsnade Heath
The track starting near the Old Hunter's Lodge (this used to be the lane leading into Whipsnade, before the new road between Kensworth and Whipsnade was built about 1930 to provide better access to the recently opened Zoo)
At the end of the track at a road T-junction (the track used to be the continuation of Buckwood Road, which was ahead of me), I went a few yards left to a roundabout, where I turned right and then crossed over to the Whipsnade Heath car park. I walked through the small car park and through a metal kissing-gate, then continued straight on through Whipsnade Heath. After passing through a small open area, the path entered the woods of the heath, running through the trees for two or three hundred yards. On leaving the wood, the path ran between a fence and an overhanging hedge on the right, then crossed a meadow to reach part of Common Road, Kensworth, where I turned right and followed the road back towards the start of Hollicks Lane and my home.
Whipsnade Heath
The path through Whipsnade Heath
The path through Whipsnade Heath
The path continuing from Whipsnade Heath to Kensworth
The path continuing from Whipsnade Heath to Kensworth
Common Road, Kensworth
It's been two or three years since I've walked in snow, and I really enjoyed it - my only regret was that I thought the snow would start to melt after a few hours, if I'd known that wasn't going to be the case I'd have taken a packed lunch with me and gone for a longer walk. I love walking in snow when it's crisp and firm underfoot, but once it starts to turn to slush it can rapidly becomes pretty miserable conditions for walking, in my opinion.