Saturday Walkers' Club

Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1

Walk 45 : Princes Risborough to Great Missenden

The Chilterns, a windmill & Bryant's Bottom

Length 16km (10 miles), 4 hours 30 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow 8 hours.
OS Landranger Map No.165. Princes Risborough, map reference SP 799 027, is in Buckinghamshire, 11km south of Aylesbury.
OS Explorer Maps Nos.172 and 181.
Toughness 6 out of 10.
Features This walk across the Chilterns – the walker’s heaven – is through sloping fields and beech woods and hamlets, past upmarket farms and upgraded cottages. The walk is not difficult but it does have two short, steep hills (with fine views) near the lunch stop – which account for the toughness rating – although the walk directions do offer an alternative route which avoids the first of the inclines. Small sections of the route can be muddy in wet weather, particularly the leg through Monkton Wood before the lunch stop.
Shortening the Walk You could order a taxi from the suggested lunchtime stop, the Gate pub in Bryant's Bottom (after 10km of walking) or from the Polecat Inn 2.5km further on. Both places may also have rare buses on weekdays (for information see TraveLine or call 0871 200 2233).
History

Princes Risborough derives its name from the Black Prince, who is said to have been Lord of the Manor there in 1343.

Lacey Green Windmill (enquiries tel. 01844 343560) is the oldest smock mill in the country, built in 1650 and moved to this site in 1821. It was in use until 1918, milling corn, wheat, oats and barley. It is open for internal viewing from 2.30pm to 5.30pm, only on Sundays and bank holiday Mondays from May to September.

The popular children's writer Roald Dahl lived and worked in Great Missenden for 36 years and the Roald Dahl Museum (tel 01494 892 192) at 81-83 High Street aims to inspire a love of stories and creative writing. Its sign tells us it’s swizzfigglingly flushbunkingly gloriumptious – so it must be worth a visit! It is open until 5 pm (last entry 4-30 pm), weekdays and weekends - closed Mondays apart from Bank Holidays. Entrance fee: adults £ 6-00, children £ 4-00, family ticket £ 19-00. Its café – Café Twit (no entrance fee) – is the suggested tea stop on this walk.

Saturday Walkers Club

Take the train nearest to 10 am from London Marylebone Station to Princes Risborough. Journey time about 44 minutes. Trains back from Great Missenden to Marylebone run twice an hour. Journey length 45 minutes.

Rail ticket: buy a day return to Aylesbury (where the two Chiltern branch lines converge).

This walk usually appears in the TO Book rota early in November each year, when leaf colour in Monkton Wood can be glorious. However, like all walks in the Chilterns, this walk is delightful at all other times of the year.
Lunch The suggested lunchtime stop is the Gate Inn (tel. 01494 488 632) at Bryant’s Bottom, 10 km into the walk, with an aviary in its garden. This walker friendly and family friendly pub serves reasonably priced food – main meals, pub favourites and light meals - until 2-30 pm, Monday to Sunday. The pub has a large outdoor dining area for summertime use, at the far-end of which is a refurbished children’s playground for the youngsters.
Tea

The suggested tea place is Café Twit – part of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre – open until 5 pm (last orders 4-45 pm), Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays other than Bank Holidays. The café also has an outdoor “Courtyard” eating area – behind the “Wonka” gates!

There remain two pubs in Great Missenden’s High Street which are still pubs, and not wine bars or restaurants, which you pass on your way to the railway station, which are usually open during the afternoon for those who prefer a stronger drink at walk-end. In order as you pass them, they are: The George Inn (tel 01494 868 455) and The Cross Keys.

On Station Approach is a Co-op Convenience store.
Travel by Train
  • Out: (not a train station)
  • Back: (not a train station)
Travel by Car

Start: Princes Risborough Station is near : HP27 9DD [gmap]

Finish: Great Missenden Station is near : HP16 9AY [gmap]

Return to your car by train:

  • (park at the start) at 4pm
  • (park at the end) at 10am
OS Explorer Map

181 : Chiltern Hills North [Amazon]
Downloads
Revised

This walk was fully revised in : Apr-10.

Download the PDF (link above) for the revised instructions, but for the map, you'll still need the book.
Other Chilterns Walks Great Missenden to Amersham, Beaconsfield (round walk), Tring to Wendover, Gerrards Cross to Cookham, Princes Risborough to Wendover, Wendover Circular, Saunderton via Bledlow Circular, Saunderton via West Wycombe Circular, Chesham to Great Missenden, Tring Circular, Little Kimble to Saunderton, Amersham Circular via Chalfont St Giles, Chorleywood to Chesham,

Walking Instructions 

[1] [Numbers refer to the map]

  1. [1] Coming out of Princes Risborough Railway Station, turn left. In 65 metres veer right with the road, away from the station. At a T-junction in 90 metres, turn right on Station Road, signposted High Wycombe and Aylesbury.
  2. In 95 metres ignore the first turn on the right (Picts Lane) and veer left with the road. In 90 metres take the next road on the right, Poppy Road (the B4444), signposted High Wycombe.
  3. Keep straight on, past the Poppyseed freehouse, bar and Indian restaurant (formerly the Black Prince pub) on your left-hand side, and come out to the A4010 road, where you bear right. Cross over the road and continue along it in the direction of High Wycombe, your bearing 155 degrees.
  4. In 160 metres turn left up a tarmac lane (the historic Upper Icknield Way), signposted the Ridgeway, your direction 60 degrees initially. Keep straight on up this lane, steadily uphill. In 120 metres ignore a turn right by a power line and in a further 20 metres, just after the tarmac ends, ignore the turn to your left.
  5. In 300 metres, at a path crossing, turn right at a four-armed footpath sign, through a metal kissing gate, your direction 150 degrees. Your onward route is more or less straight on for the next 1.5 km until you reach a car road junction, but in more detail:
  6. Follow the path downhill, with a fence on your right-hand side, and up the other side, ignoring turn offs. In 600 pass under pylons and go through a gap in a field boundary. Continue ahead, now across an open field, and after 300 metres at the end of the field you cross a stile, to turn half left down a slope, in 70 metres at its bottom crossing another stile, to head up the other side, following a clear path, half left uphill.
  7. In 170 metres you come up to a hedge on your left-hand side and continue ahead. In a further 130 metres cross a tarmac drive (which leads on the left to Wardrobe House, marked on the OS map) with redundant stiles on either side of the drive. In 50 metres, as the path and hedge swing to the right [!] turn left over a stile to go half right and ahead (at right angles to the telephone cables you pass under), your direction 150 degrees.
  8. In 100 metres cross a stile in the hedge ahead. Now follow the clear path across a field, half left, and in 100 metres you pass a redundant stile to come out onto a car road junction. Follow the road “Woodway” uphill into Loosley Row Village.
  9. Stay on this road, uphill, and in 300 metres ignore Lower Road on the right which forks downhill to Saunderton. In a further 300 metres you come to the top of the hill, at crossroads, with the Whip Inn on your left-hand side. On the right-hand side of this pub is gravel, car-wide lane which leads to Lacey Green Windmill.
  10. Continue ahead along the road into Lacey Green and some 25 metres beyond the pub, turn left on a signposted path – The Chiltern Way - beside a metal bus shelter, your direction 65 degrees, with a field hedge on your left-hand side.
  11. Your route ahead remains more or less straight on for 800 metres – until you go under some pylons, but in more detail: in 90 metres cross a stile, with the windmill away to your left. In a further 130 metres cross another stile and keep ahead, soon leaving the hedge on your left-hand side as you head across an open field towards another stile.
  12. In 150 metres cross this stile and follow the direction of an arrow, half right, your bearing 70 degrees, and head down then up this field – with horse paddocks to your left and right - towards a new stile in the field fence boundary directly ahead. In 85 metres cross this stile and turn left on a cinder car-wide track, between new wooden fences, uphill, your direction 40 degrees. In 70 metres cross a cinder track and keep ahead as the track levels out. In 50 metres, at another track crossing, cross over and keep ahead (slightly right) on a car-wide earth track between fences, your direction 55 degrees, heading towards power cables.
  13. In 110 metres cross a new stile to the right of a metal fieldgate and keep ahead, soon with a hedge on your left. In 35 metres go under the power cables and continue straight on, keeping the field hedge on your left-hand side, your direction 30 degrees.
  14. In 300 metres you come to the end of this field with a hedge directly ahead of you and a fieldgate on your left-hand side. Here [!] turn right to follow the hedge which is now on your left-hand side, your direction 130 degrees.
  15. In 100 metres [!] cross a stile in the hedge on your left and follow an arrow and clear path, half right, downhill, your direction 80 degrees. In 160 metres cross a stile by a Chiltern’s Way footpath sign, down into a wooded avenue and onto a bridleway, where you turn left, your direction 25 degrees.
  16. Head downhill on this bridleway (on the line of Grim’s Ditch, very muddy in wet weather) and in 100 metres you pass Lily Farm (marked on the OS map) on your right-hand side, and come out on to a tarmac car lane [2] where you turn left.
  17. In 15 metres [!] turn right on to a car-wide track, signposted public bridleway, pass Iron Beech Cottage on your right, your direction 60 degrees, into Monkton Wood. In 50 metres, by a two-armed footpath signs, some 15 metres before a four-armed footpath sign, turn half right, to pass through a wooden barrier in 10 metres.
  18. Your route is more or less straight on along the edge of this mainly beech wood for about 2 km, in a south-easterly direction, avoiding as best you can any muddy sections by taking parallel paths on your left. In more detail:
  19. In 1 km go straight on through wooden fence barriers at a major path crossing. In a further 500 metres go through a wooden swing gate to pass Cedar Cottage on your right-hand side. In another 80 metres cross a car road – Hampden Road - and continue straight on along a car-wide lane - Coleheath Bottom - signposted as a bridleway.
  20. In 500 metres you pass Ringwood House on your right-hand side and then, 30 metres before a road T-junction [3], turn left on a signposted footpath, uphill into woods, your direction 50 degrees.
  21. In 300 metres you come out on to a car road by Spring Coppice Farm (marked on the OS map), where you turn left. In 125 metres turn right through a wooden kissing gate to join a signposted footpath, your direction 85 degrees.
  22. In 130 metres go through another wooden kissing gate after passing between two small copses of trees, to follow a fence with concrete posts on your left-hand side. Head downhill and in 200 metres go under pylons and in 10 metres go through a wooden kissing gate. Now go straight on through the grounds of a house called Balnakeil, passing the house on your left-hand side, to head down its driveway, to exit the driveway through its gates. In 50 metres you come down to a car road.
  23. [!] At this point, if ground conditions have been very muddy or if you are feeling weary and in need of your lunch, you can take a short-cut to the lunchtime pub by turning right along the road for about 850 metres, coming to the Gate Inn on your left-hand side.
  24. But the suggested route is to cross the road and go over a stile into the wood, climbing steeply uphill, on a potentially muddy path, your direction 65 degrees. In 100 metres, ignoring forks off, cross another stile and keep ahead, still steeply uphill, following a fence line on your left.
  25. In 150 metres the path starts to level out and you go over a stile to the left of a wooden fieldgate, where you turn right onto a car-wide earth track (with grass down its middle) your direction 160 degrees. In 100 metres you pass Denner Farm on your left-hand side and in a further 20 metres go over a stile to the left of a wooden fieldgate and continue straight on, down the middle of a field, your direction 145 degrees.
  26. In 200 metres go through a metal swing gate to the right of a metal fieldgate to follow a bramble hedge on your left-hand side. In 150 metres, and some 80 metres before you reach the end of the field, exit the field by a metal swing gate on your left-hand side and head across a field towards a kissing gate and a footpath sign, half right, your direction 105 degrees.
  27. In 80 metres pass through this metal kissing gate to the right of a metal fieldgate, to turn right on to car lanes and take the right fork, signposted a public bridleway, to go past a shed on the left, your direction 170 degrees, gently downhill.
  28. In 300 metres you pass a renovated flintstone house – Springfield Cottage - on your right-hand side, and by a footpath post on your left-hand side, turn right down its far wall, to go steeply downhill on a path, through a lightly wooded area, your direction 250 degrees, which in 225 metres comes down to the car road again, with the Gate Inn at Bryant’s Bottom – the suggested lunchtime stop – on your left-hand side.
  29. Coming out of the pub after lunch, turn left on the road. In 250 metres, by a two-armed footpath side on your left-hand side, turn left over a stile, to the right of a metal fieldgate, to head uphill, quite steeply, bearing half right, up a grassy bank, your direction 105 degrees.
  30. In 200 metres cross a stile to the right of a metal fieldgate and continue uphill, still half right. In a further 50 metres, cross a stile to exit the field on to a tarmac car lane, where you turn right, your direction 135 degrees.
  31. In 50 metres pass through metal gates marked “Private – Denner Hill House” to bend to the left to pass Hughenden Chase, a substantial house on your right-hand side. 50 metres past its main gates (black, between white wing walls), bear left over a grass verge towards a stile, as indicated by a footpath sign, go over the stile and immediately turn right, your direction 80 degrees, to follow the path downhill, parallel to the drive, with the field fence on your right-hand side (ignoring the direction shown by a second footpath sign beside the stile).
  32. In 100 metres cross a stile in the field corner to carry on, downhill. In 125 metres veer left, following the hedges, down towards the hamlet. In 120 metres, at the bottom, and under pylons, go over a stile and turn right on the car road (the entrance to Prestwood Local Nature Reserve is 50 metres along the road to the left – a fine piece of chalk downland rich with butterflies – worth a detour in summer).
  33. Having gone right on the car road, in 20 metres turn left into Perks Lane, your direction 70 degrees. Go up this straight, residential road for 600 metres, climbing steadily, and just past the last house on the right (White Lodge), where the road veers to the right [!] keep ahead and go through a metal kissing gate, to follow the direction of the footpath sign - 70 degrees - half right, up a grassy bank.
  34. In 175 metres go under a mini-pylon and carry on uphill, now bearing half right, your direction 55 degrees, initially parallel to another set of power cables going your way. With a fine view back over your route, in a further 200 metres you leave the field near its top left-hand corner by a metal kissing gate, some 20 metres to the left of a telegraph pole in the hedge.
  35. Carry on with blackberry bushes on your left-hand side, and in 80 metres go through a gate to reach the Polecat Inn on your right-hand side. Walk through the pub’s car park and turn right on to the A4128 road. In 30 metres cross this road and turn left to follow a signposted footpath between fences and hedges, your direction 65 degrees.
  36. In 250 metres go through gateposts (where once there was a stile) and head slightly leftwards, down into the wood. In 20 metres turn left onto a wider bridleway, your direction northwards, keeping to the main track.
  37. In 70 metres your track merges with a wider track from the right. In 60 metres you pass a deep crater with exposed beech tree roots on your right-hand side. [!] The suggested route ahead, through the wood, is to follow the bridleway, marked by periodic signs (a disc with a blue arrow on a white background) instead of the footpath route in the TO Book, which in places is no longer visible on the ground [!]. Continue ahead to follow the bridleway discs on trees along the left-hand edge of the wood.
  38. In 400 metres, with an open field ahead, turn sharp right at a path junction to follow a path with the wood now to your right and a fence and the open field to your left, your initial direction 95 degrees.
  39. Follow the bridleway discs and in 300 metres leave the wood on an earth driveway beside a footpath and bridleway sign to pass “Woodcot”, the end house of a row of houses, on your right, your direction 35 degrees. Continue on the earth driveway – Church Path - and in 150 metres, you come to a T-junction [4], where you turn right on to a car road.
  40. In 15 metres turn left on a signposted footpath. In a further 10 metres, go through a metal swing gate to the left of a rusting metal fieldgate to continue on a clear path over open, mostly flat arable fields, your direction 45 degrees.
  41. In 450 metres the path descends to enter a wood by a footpath post and follow the path, gently downhill, close to the wood’s right-hand edge, your direction 100 degrees. In 300 metres go through a metal kissing gate [5] and turn left uphill, your direction 60 degrees, on a car-wide earth track between post and wire fences.
  42. In 100 metres ignore a kissing gate on your right and in 15 metres ignore a further metal kissing gate on your left, to continue straight on along what is now a wooded path, passing plantations of trees to your left and right.
  43. In 275 metres you come out through retractable bollards on to a tarmac farm road, with Angling Spring Farm, a modern house, on your left-hand side in timber and red brick. 25 metres downhill past the farm’s entrance, as the tarmac road swings to the right, fork left on to a gravel path going along the right-hand side of the farm, your direction 320 degrees.
  44. In 35 metres at a path junction, take the right fork (almost straight on) to follow a footpath arrow on a post, past a Chiltern District Council woodland management sign and map on your right, your direction 330 degrees, downhill.
  45. Keep to the edge of the wood as the path goes steadily downhill and in 200 metres you reach the bottom of the hill to exit the wood through a wooden kissing gate to the right of a wooden fieldgate, to take the earth lane towards Great Missenden, your direction due east.
  46. The lane soon becomes a grassy way along the edge of an open field and in 400 metres you come out on to an earth drive, with a cemetery on your right-hand side, behind a hedge. At a T-junction, turn right on an earth road, your direction 160 degrees. In 30 metres, turn left on a narrow tarmac path and go under a railway arch.
  47. In 40 metres from the far side of the arch carry straight on along a gravel drive – Twitchell Road - between houses, in 80 metres coming to a T-junction, opposite the car park of the George Inn, where you turn left. In 30 metres, with a car park barrier facing you, turn right on a tarmac path between walls, in 50 metres coming to the George Inn, a possible tea place.
  48. Turn left along the High Street. In 75metres you pass the Café Twit on your right-hand side, the suggested tea stop. Coming out of the café, turn right to continue along the High Street, passing the Old Red Lion on your left (now a delicatessen), then the White Lion on your right (now a wine bar). Continue up the High Street, passing the Cross Keys pub on your left.
  49. Some 350 metres along the High Street (from the George Inn) turn left into Station Approach, uphill, to reach Great Missenden Railway Station on your left in 80 metres. Just before the station on your left-hand side is a Co-op Convenience store.