Coombe Hill and The Ridgeway
A Circular Walk from Whiteleaf Hill
There are walks in the Chiltern Hills that you do because they're convenient, and then there are walks that carry a bit of weight to them — routes where you know before you've even laced your boots that you're going somewhere that means something. The circular from Whiteleaf Hill taking in Coombe Hill and a stretch of The Ridgeway is firmly in the second category. This is one of the big ones, and it earns that reputation with every step.
I walked it in February, which, in hindsight, was either brave or slightly foolish depending on your relationship with mud. After weeks of rain, the Chilterns were thoroughly saturated, and this route — which crosses farmland, climbs chalk escarpments, and weaves through ancient beech woodland — was carrying every drop of it.
Elvis came with me, naturally. Where there's a walk worth doing, there's a dog worth bringing.
Starting Out: Whiteleaf Hill Car Park
The walk starts from Whiteleaf Hill car park near Princes Risborough, which is well-signed and easy enough to find. It's a decent sized car park and tends to fill up on weekends, so arriving reasonably early is worth doing if you're walking on a Saturday or Sunday.
When I arrived, a group of volunteers from the Chilterns Society were gathering in the car park. They do a fantastic job — quietly and without any fuss, these volunteers give up their time to look after the footpaths, the woodlands, and the wider landscape of the Chilterns. It's easy to walk these routes and take for granted the fact that the paths are clear and well-maintained. Seeing the volunteers assembled and ready to go that morning was a good reminder that none of that happens by accident.
Into the Woods: Giles Wood and Ninn Wood
From the car park, the route heads up and into the trees fairly quickly. The first woodland you pass through is Giles Wood, one of those ancient Chilterns beech woods that feels entirely unchanged from one century to the next. The canopy in February is bare of course, which means the light comes through differently than it does in summer — stark and grey, with the silver-grey trunks of the beeches standing out clearly against the sky. For black and white photography, this kind of light is actually ideal. There's no competition between colour and form; the trees just do what they do.
From Giles Wood, the path moves on into Ninn Wood. The ground here was already starting to show the effects of recent rain — soft underfoot and beginning to cling. But the woodland itself was worth it.
Longdown Hill Road and Into Pulpit Wood
Eventually the route brings you out to Longdown Hill Road, where you cross over and turn right into Pulpit Wood. If you haven't walked Pulpit Wood before, it's worth knowing that it's a nature reserve managed by the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), and it's ancient woodland — some of the oldest in the Chilterns. The mix of beech, whitebeam and yew gives it a slightly different feel to the surrounding woods, and underfoot the chalk soil means it drains better than most. A small mercy given the conditions on the day.
From Pulpit Wood, the route continues through Pond Wood, picking its way along the ridge and through the quieter stretches of the escarpment. The paths here are well-walked but rarely crowded in winter, and there's something genuinely peaceful about being up on the Chilterns ridge on a grey February morning with the fields spread out below.
Goodmerhill Wood, Longwalk Wood, and Linton's Wood
The walk threads through Goodmerhill Wood next, then on through Longwalk Wood and into what's sometimes referred to as Linton's Wood — names that feel as though they've been given by people who walked here long before any of us, and that's probably exactly right. This section of the route has a lovely sense of depth to it; you're moving through connected woodland rather than isolated stands of trees, and the path rolls gently without too much climbing as it tends to follow the line of the ridge.
It was in this section that I started to notice just how saturated the ground had become. The mud was beginning to accumulate in a way that anyone who walks the Chilterns in winter will recognise — that particular kind of chalky clay that builds up on your boots until you feel like you're wearing lead. Every step gets incrementally heavier. You find yourself doing a little kick every few paces to try and shed some of the weight. It doesn't really work, but it becomes a rhythm of its own.
Coombe Hill: The Highest Point in the Chilterns
Then you reach Coombe Hill, and everything is worth it.
At 260 metres, Coombe Hill is the highest viewpoint in the Chilterns — not the highest point outright, but the best view, and there's a strong argument that a view is worth more than a height. On a clear day from the top, you can see across the Vale of Aylesbury for what feels like most of Buckinghamshire. On an overcast February morning with rain threatening, the view is moodier, the light flatter, and honestly no less impressive for it. Just before we reached the Boer War memorial on the summit, we stopped on one of the well situated benches for snacks and a hot drink from the flask. Elvis seemed unimpressed by the view but very interested in the snacks.
The monument and the escarpment at Coombe Hill are well-documented in Chilterns photography, but the real interest for me was the wider landscape spread below — the fields, the villages in the distance, the sense of scale that you only get from being genuinely high up.
Bacombe Hill and the HS2 Diversion
From Coombe Hill the route continues along the ridge to Bacombe Hill, which gives more good views back across the escarpment before the path begins to drop. At the bottom of Bacombe Hill, turn left onto Ellesborough Road — as when I plotted my route on OS maps the original footpath through this section is currently closed due to HS2 rail works.
The closure means you need to follow the road for a stretch before rejoining the public right of way on the right. It's not the most inspiring section of the walk, and it adds a bit of road-walking that you wouldn't choose if you had the option, but it's manageable and well-signed. Just be aware before you go.
The Fields to Ellesborough: Heavy Going
Once you're back off the road and into the fields heading towards Ellesborough, the walk enters what was, on the day I did it, comfortably the toughest section.
The fields here had taken a serious battering from the winter rain. The footpath crosses open farmland for a fair stretch, and the ground was waterlogged and churned. Every step pulled at your boots. The mud wasn't just soft — it had that adhesive quality that chalk-heavy soil gets when it's fully saturated, where it bonds to your footwear and builds with each step until you feel like you're dragging yourself through wet concrete. I kept thinking of the phrase "concrete walking boots" because that's exactly what it felt like. Your legs are working hard just to move at a normal pace, and by the time you climb slightly up towards the church, your calves are quietly letting you know they've noticed.
It was heavy going. But it was also the kind of walking that makes you feel properly alive — cold air, grey sky, open fields, and the simple effort of forward motion.
The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Ellesborough
At the end of that muddy stretch, you climb slightly and arrive at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Ellesborough. It's a beautiful church, set high on a low rise with the Chiltern escarpment as a backdrop, and it has been there in various forms since Norman times. The current building is largely 14th and 15th century, and there's an unhurried grace to it that you don't always find in more visited churches.
It's also the traditional parish church of Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence, which sits nearby — so it carries a certain quiet significance that's easy to overlook if you're just passing through.
We stopped here for a proper sit down, another bite to eat, and the second mandatory cup of tea. The churchyard offers a sheltered spot, and after the effort of the fields it felt genuinely restorative. Even Elvis seemed happy to pause.
The Return: Beacon Hill, Whorley Wood, and Pulpit Hill
From Ellesborough, the route crosses back over Ellesborough Road and heads into the fields on the far side, beginning a steady climb up around Beacon Hill. The escarpment here gives more good elevated walking before the path drops into Whorley Wood and then climbs again to Pulpit Hill.
Pulpit Hill is another BBOWT nature reserve and sits at the edge of the escarpment above Princes Risborough. It's chalk grassland at the top, woodland on the flanks, and the views from the ridge looking west are worth a few minutes of standing still. On the day I walked it, the light was doing interesting things with the low cloud — breaking up in places to let through thin strips of brightness that moved across the fields below like slow spotlights.
From Pulpit Hill, it's a case of heading back towards Giles Wood and following the path back down to the car park at Whiteleaf Hill. The final stretch felt earned, as final stretches on longer walks tend to.
Walk Notes
Distance: Approximately 8-9 miles Difficulty: Moderate — expect to be out for a good four to five hours depending on your pace and how long you linger at Coombe Hill and Ellesborough. In winter conditions with significant mud, add time and energy accordingly. Good waterproof boots are not optional on this route in wet weather.
The route takes in some of the most important landscape names in the Chilterns — Coombe Hill, The Ridgeway, Chiltern Way, Icknield Way, Pulpit Wood, Bacombe Hill, Whiteleaf Hill, Ellesborough — and ties them together in a way that gives you a real sense of the character and variety of this part of Buckinghamshire. Ancient woodland, open chalk escarpment, farmland, historic churchyard. It has everything.
It was tough going in February after weeks of rain, and the HS2 diversion is a minor nuisance, and yes, the mud was relentless. But myself and Elvis walked away from it properly satisfied — which is the only measure that matters. Please check through my other blogs for more walking routes.
To follow this route please click the link bellow which will take you to OS maps and you can view the map and download the GPX file.