Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and the Hampdens (page 2 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.
On reaching a metal kissing-gate, I went a few yards right down a sunken bridleway, then followed a path on the other side. There was now a very pleasant stretch along the foot of Pulpit Hill, whose wooded slopes stretched uphill on my left. The Ridgeway then crossed a bridleway and entered the Grangelands and Rifle Range nature reserve, where it followed a broad band of grass gently downhill. I was still following the white acorn signs, which brought me to a gate where the Ridgeway turned right, close to a garden on the right, and soon reached a minor road at Cadsden. Here I turned left, but soon forked right along a short street that brought me to The Plough public house.
The Ridgeway as it passes the foot of Pulpit Hill
The Ridgeway continuing through the "Grangelands and The Rifle Range" nature reserve
The Ridgeway heading towards Whiteleaf Hill
Immediately past the pub, the Ridgeway turned right. It very soon forked left through a gate at a path junction, and started the long climb up Whiteleaf Hill. It went right at another fork almost straight away (I think both paths come together again anyway) and then went right, uphill, at another path junction. This was then a steady plod uphill through woods - there was a steeper section towards the end, but after that the last part was fairly gentle. At the top of Whiteleaf Hill the bridleway emerged onto a grassy area with fine views over the Vale of Aylesbury.
The Ridgeway climbing up Whiteleaf Hill
The Ridgeway climbing up Whiteleaf Hill
The Ridgeway climbing up Whiteleaf Hill
The Ridgeway reaching the top of Whiteleaf Hill
I turned left, passing the 5,500 year old burial mound on my right and going through a gate. After two or three hundred yards I finally left the Ridgeway, by turning left onto a bridleway. Immediately I passed the remains of some World War I practice trenches on my right. The bridleway then ran for several hundred yards just inside the edge of a beech wood, with a field close by on the right. There was a steep slope dropping down through the trees on my left - this is marked The Hangings on the OS map, but I don't know if that is the name of the wood or of the valley. I stayed on the bridleway (close to the field) where a footpath forked slightly left, and then when I reached the end of the field I turned right at a path crossroads. I still had the same field close by on my right, as I now walked just inside the edge of Sergeant's Wood. On emerging at a corner of the wood, I turned left and followed a bridleway that ran between the southwestern edge of Sergeant's Wood and a large field.
The Neolithic barrow on Whiteleaf Hill (it's about 5,500 years old!)
View from Whiteleaf Hill over Princes Risborough
View from Whiteleaf Hill
The Ridgeway on Whiteleaf Hill
World War 1 practice trenches on Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway passing The Hangings (I don't know if that's the name of the wood or the valley)
Further along the same bridleway
The bridleway just inside Sergeant's Wood, after I turned right
The bridleway beside Sergeant's Wood, after I turned left
Further along the same bridleway