Saturday Walk - Hill top villages in East Bucks. Panoramic views of The Chilterns and Aylesbury Vale : Cheddington to Leighton Buzzard

Length: 24.8 km (15.5 mi)

Ascent/Descent: 240/247m 

Net Walking Time: ca. 5 ½ hours 

Toughness: 4 out of 10

 

Take the 09.09 Milton Keynes Central train from Euston (calls Harrow & Wealdstone and Watford Junction), arriving Cheddington at 09.57.  

Return trains: xx.17 (fast), xx.42 (slow). 

Buy a Leighton Buzzard return.

 

Sunset in LB will be at 15.57, i.e. enough light for walking to 16.30.

 

A splendid walk through East Buckinghamshire’s rolling landscape of fields and wooded areas on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, linking up a handful of delightful hill top villages to provide panoramic views across pleasant countryside. Broadly following the Thames/Great Ouse watershed in the morning, it initially heads west, mostly with grand views of the Chilterns (when not walking in wooded areas), to then turn north with far views into Aylesbury Vale to the west, on to lunch pubs at either Aston Abbotts or Cublington.

The afternoon route is more level, but still features the hilltop village of Wing and ends with a fairly tranquil descent into Linslade (for Leighton Buzzard station).

Disclaimers: There are several arable field crossings to contend with, generally along well-cleared paths though. There is also a (relatively undramatic) level crossing of the dual carriageway Leighton Buzzard-bypass road near the end of the walk.

Lunch: No Pub Options, i.e. picnic. [The Unicorn in Cublington (13.9 km/8.7 mi) has been closed since 09/24 and there is a fundraiser to buy it as a Community Asset: https://savetheunicorn.org/, and (a little earlier and 250m off-route) the Royal Oak Inn in Aston Abbotts (11.5 km/7.1 mi) closed in 2021.]

Tea: several pubs listed in the directions, they are all in the Linslade part of town, i.e.: close to the station. There is also The Black Lion in Leighton Buzzard’s centre (at 20 High Street), a bit further away, which has been voted ‘CAMRA Pub of the Year Bedfordshire’ in its first year. Or The Bald Buzzard, a micropub at 6 Hockcliffe Street.

For walk directions, map, height profile, comments, and gpx/kml files click here.t=swc.195