Ivinghoe and Pitstone Hill

START and FINISH: (A) Ivinghoe Village Green LU7 9EW. Grid ref: SP 944 161

(S/E) From the village green set off along Church road with the 13th century church on your right, soon passing some fine houses. Continue straight ahead out of the village, over the road to Dunstable and look out for a signed public footpath on the left, 100m beyond the junction.

(1) Follow this path uphill for 1.3km, through 2 gates, until reaching a signposted crossing with the Ridgeway National Trail. From here there is a good view of the spectacular Incombe Hole to your left and the (B) Ivinghoe Hills beyond.

(2) Turn right along the Ridgeway and follow the well-signed route to a road. Cross the road into the car park, cross to the kissing gate and go through it. The shapely summit ahead of you is not Pitstone Hill (it's worth going up if you feel energetic). Follow the Ridgeway as it skirts the left side of this hill and ascends further to the shapeless top of (C) Pitstone Hill. Here you get fine views over Ivinghoe, Pitstone and the Vale of Aylesbury.

At the top of the hill do not bear left to continue along the ridge but go straight on following the Ridgeway. This descends diagonally down the hillside on a clear chalk path (Grim’s Ditch, an ancient earthwork).

(3) Directly in front of you is a gate into a wooded area. Do not go through the gate but leave the Ridgeway by turning sharp right on the signed bridleway which drops quite steeply at first. Continue straight ahead past the Aldbury Nowers nature reserve, ignoring a footpath joining from the right and a bridleway leaving to the left.

Eventually, 600m after leaving the Ridgeway and immediately before reaching a road, turn 90 degrees right along a path through a band of trees between the road and quarry. Continue until you emerge from the trees near a roundabout.

(4) Cross the road coming in from the right and continue on the cycleway/footpath on Westfield Road towards Pitstone for about 250m. Look for a footpath bearing right through the hedge. This can be overgrown, but there is another way through the hedge by a gate 100m further on. Follow the waymark posts across the former quarry to emerge into a residential area. Continue straight ahead along the minor road (Church Road) to a T-junction.

(5) Turn left along the road for 60m and look out for a signed public footpath and kissing gate to the right. This path, with fine views of (D) Pitstone Windmill, takes you directly back to Ivinghoe High Street, where you turn right to the starting point.(S/E)

"We hope you have enjoyed your walk. Please remember to rate the walk and add comments. We are interested in how we could improve the instructions or the route and would like to hear about any issues with paths on the walk."

TERRAIN: A moderate walk on good paths with one major climb and one steep descent.

START & FINISH: Ivinghoe Village Green LU7 9EW. Grid ref: SP 944 161

FOOD & DRINK: Rose & Crown pub in Vicarage Lane

PARKING: Limited street parking in High Street and Station Road

LOCAL TRANSPORT: Bus 50 runs between Aylesbury and Marsworth on Sundays and Bus 61 runs between Aylesbury and Luton on Mondays to Saturdays

This walk was created for the book "50 Great Walks in the Chilterns".

(A) IVINGHOE: The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon for 'Ifa's hill-spur'. In the Domesday Book it was recorded as Evinghehou. There are many listed buildings in the village, the most notable of which is the Grade 1 listed St Mary’s Church. It dates from 1220 but was burnt to the ground and rebuilt shortly afterwards. Some have claimed that Sir Walter Scott took the title of his novel Ivanhoe from the name of the village.

(B) IVINGHOE HILLS: High above the village are the Ivinghoe Hills, much of which belong to the National Trust’s Ashridge Estate. As well as being an SSSI it is an area rich in ancient earthworks. Ivinghoe Beacon is one of the highest points in the Chilterns and has wonderful views across the countryside. This important chalk grassland is home to a wide variety of butterflies and wildflowers. Incombe Hole is a steep-sided dry valley that was formed by glacial action.

(C) PITSTONE HILL is managed by the National Trust and is a nesting site for skylarks and meadow pipits. Directly below is one of the quarries of the former Pitstone Cement Works which closed in the 1990s. This particular quarry is still active, producing chalk for agricultural use.

The footpath runs alongside a section of Grim’s Ditch. Named after a Nordic god, it’s part of a series of linear earthworks that run from Bradenham to Ivinghoe, and remains one of the great mysteries of Buckinghamshire. Following investigations archaeologists now generally agree that the earthwork probably dates from the early to mid-Iron Age, c700BC.

(D) PITSTONE WINDMILL is one of the oldest surviving post mills in Britain. Post mills were designed to turn through 360 degrees so they could always catch the wind. Pitstone Windmill was damaged by a freak storm in 1902 but restored by volunteers after it passed to the National Trust in 1937. It opens on Sunday afternoons from May to August.