Length 15.5 km (9.6 miles) 4/10
I hope nobody notices that I keep borrowing Mr Tiger's storm-affected walks: although this has been posted recently on a Sunday with unknown attendance, I thought we could give it a whirl on Wednesday having read of other options in the neighbourhood having flooded sections. It's an attractive spin on a classic Chilterns walk. The Golden Valley after Little Gaddesden is nice, the finish in Berkhamsted has good refreshment options, and this route avoids possible gloop around the Bridgewater Monument.
Travel: 1009 from Euston (Harrow & Wealdstone 1021) arriving at Tring 1051. There are 4 return trains an hour from Berkhamsted but they are not evenly spaced - approx 19, 25, 49, 55. Get a return to Tring.
Lunch: the Bridgewater Arms (tel 01442 842408) in the village of Little Gaddesden usually goes down well; it is open seven days a week and and food is served all day weekdays from 12 noon until 9 pm. It has comfortable internal dining areas and a very pleasant beer garden.
Near the pub is a village store, where provisions can be purchased for picnickers. A good picnic spot is the churchyard of the church in Little Gaddesden, some 400 metres or so from the pub.
Tea: Just before the railway station you come to the Crystal Palace pub on the canal, which reopened in 2021 following refurbishment after a lengthy period of closure. Heading south-east along the canal towpath you come to the The Boat (nice outdor veranda) and Rising Sun canalside pubs. In the centre of Berkhamsted there are further pubs and a number of tea shops.
Finally, the Berkhamsted Railway Station Cafe, in addition to serving hot drinks, doubles up as a wine shop.
Longer walk option: you could start by heading out to Ivinghoe Beacon following walk 2.5 and pick up today's route from Little Gaddesden, making a Tring greatest hits walk of about 19 km/12 miles.
T=swc.366
5 comments:
The walk poster is going to miss the 1009 because of Victoria line disruption and will be 15 mins behind
Sandy, talking about yourself in the 3rd person is widely acknowledged to be a sign of madness!
Although I missed the beginning, I think I pieced together from those I met in the pub at the end that there were #16 on the walk on a #bright-day-dull-later.
Others agreed that walking along the narrow, flooded and partially overgrown canal path at the start was unexpectedly nerve racking. After doing that by myself, I caught up on some back markers on Tom's Hill, not before an unpleasant encounter in the farmyard of the llama farm which I'd accidentally strayed into. If doing this route again I think I would go the other way out of the station and follow the Hertfordshire Way to Tom's Hill on the north side of the railway line.
Some other walkers were seen ahead but I never quite caught up with them, but regrouped with four others in the pub at Little Gaddesden (one ate there) and we walked together in the afternoon. We looked in on th Bakehouse at Ashridge College and thought it might be a good place to stop but too soon after lunch for us.
In Berkhamsted most of this little group headed into the Crystal Palace where we met three other walkers, enjoyed a drink with canal-side view and a quick walk to the station for the 1628. I hear 5 others went to the Rising Sun.
After three days of rain, many of the paths were inevitably pretty wet but all the same an enjoyable day after the first bit
Noting Sandy's comment below, I will add to the on-line Walk Directions an alternative start from the railway station, north of the canal, along the Hertfordshire Way to Tom's Hill.
I counted #17 walkers in total, 15 off the 10.09 from Euston, the walk poster on a later train, and one walker waiting for us outside Tring Station. One minor comment about the walk directions: I would describe the main station exit as being north-western (rather than south-western), since the railway line at Tring runs in a north, north-west direction towards Milton Keynes
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