Pete's Walks- North from Hambleden (page 1 of 4)
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.
Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk
I did this roughly 9 mile circular walk on Saturday, 28th January 2023. It was a repeat of a walk I first did in March 2014.
Previously when I've done this walk, I started from the village car park in Hambleden (grid reference SU785866), then followed the street from the car park to the village square, continuing past the church on my right and down a street on the other side which soon turned right and passed a second side of the churchyard. But as you now have to pay for the car park, I parked here by the church instead. I started walking about 10.30am, heading north along the lane (with the churchyard on my right). After two or three hundred yards I turned right at a footpath sign (there was a Chiltern Way sign here too) and followed the path across a large empty pasture - I could feel the ground here was still frozen, the temperature was now about 2.5C. The path then went through a kissing gate where I went into the next smaller pasture. Beyond this second pasture I went through a paddock to reach the hamlet of Pheasant's Hill. As usual I hurried past the man-eating hedge (see photo below!) and followed the path onwards between gardens. On reaching a track or lane, I turned right along it. When it turned right, a narrow footpath led more or less straight on between garden fences or hedges to reach a lane.
The footpath to Pheasant's Hillk
The footpath to Pheasant's Hill
Approaching Pheasant's Hill
The man-eating hedge at Pheasant's Hill is still at it - yet again those are a different pair of boots since the last time I was here!
The path through the gardens at Pheasant's Hill
I took the footpath that started on the other side of the lane, which rose uphill through a wood. The first part of this path was a little steep (at least for someone as unfit and overweight as I am at the moment), but then the path only rose very gently through the wood until after about a mile I reached a lane, by Beeches Farm in the hamlet of Pheasants.
Near the start of the footpath from Pheasant's Hill to Beeches Farm
Looking left from the footpath from Pheasant's Hill to Beeches Farm, over the Hambleden Valley
The footpath from Pheasant's Hill to Beeches Farm
The footpath from Pheasant's Hill to Beeches Farm
The footpath from Pheasant's Hill to Beeches Farm
Almost at the end of the footpath from Pheasant's Hill to Beeches Farm
I turned right, passing the farm, then after two or three hundred yards took a footpath on the left (starting next to a driveway). This path went diagonally across an empty pasture or meadow, then followed a garden boundary to reach another lane. I turned left and followed the lane for about half a mile. Immediately after passing St Katherine's (a stately home that was once briefly an Anglican convent and is now a "retreat house where people from all walks of life, from all faiths or none, can come to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the house and grounds"), I turned left along a bridleway. The bridleway was initially surfaced as it passed the grounds of the former convent on my left. Beyond a cottage on the right, the surfacing ended but the bridleway continued ahead along a track with young beech trees either side. Further on the bridleway entered Hatchett Wood.
The lane near Beeches Farm, Pheasants
The path across the meadow at Pheasants
The lane between Pheasants and Parmoor
The lane passing St Katherine's, Parmoor
Near the start of the bridleway, running past the grounds of St Katherine's, Parmoor
The bridleway continuing from St Katherine's Parmoor
The bridleway continuing from St Katherine's Parmoor
The bridleway now heading towards Hatchet Wood