Activities at Chilterns Countryside

Watlington Hill

Discover fine views and wildlife as you walk to the top of Watlington Hill. The hill has a long, triangular shaped chalk white mark and is a SSSI. It's an especially good place for watching red kites.

A long walk in the Chilterns

This 16 mile circular walk starts at the National Trust’s Watlington Hill site. It drops down and along the Chilterns escarpment then climbs back into the hills. Here you visit pretty hamlets and villages, and the Stonor and Wormsley estates. You also enjoy much remote and unspoiled countryside and woodland. The walk is challenging but hugely rewarding.

• Challenging
• 6 hours 30 mins
• 16.0 miles (25.7km)

From Chilterns Escarpment to Remote Interior

This is a moderately long walk that begins at Watlington Hill with far-reaching views of the Chilterns escarpment and the Oxford Vale.

• Challenging
• 5 hours 30 mins
• 11.3 miles (18.15km)

Watlington Hill and the Wormsley Estate – An Emblematic Chilterns Walk

This is a 8.4 miles (13.4 kilometres) walk taking you around the National Trust’s Watlington Hill site, Pyrton Hill, Cowleaze Wood and the Wormsley Estate.

• Challenging
• 4 hours
• 8.4 miles (13.5km)

Watlington Hill - Greenfields and Saxon Roads

A 7-mile walk from Watlington Hill that explores chalk grassland and beech woodlands on the historic landscape of the Chilterns on the border between Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

• Challenging
• 3 hours 30 mins
• 7.0 miles (11.25km)

Watlington Hill short walk

This is a 1.5 mile walk around the Watlington Hill site, with opportunities to see rare and endangered chalk grassland and woodland habitats. The walk offers spectacular views over Watlington, the Vale of Oxford, and along the Chiltern Escarpment.

• Moderate
• 1 hour
• 1.5 miles (2.4km)

Bradenham Estate

You could explore acres of countryside, with beech woodland surrounding a village that clusters around a village green. The village also has a pub, church and seventeenth century manor house, which is now tenanted.

Hambleden and Pheasant’s Hill Trail

This circular, 5.0 mile walk starts and ends in the flint and red brick village of Hambleden. The walk initially ascends the east side of the Hambleden Valley; it then descends through the hamlet of Pheasants Hill. The route then explores the west side of the Hambleden Valley, with its beech woods and distant views across the valley and towards Hambleden village below.

• Moderate
• 2 hours 30 mins
• 5.0 miles (8.0km)

Coombe Hill and Chequers trail

This moderately energetic circular walk offers panoramic views across the Aylesbury Vale. You’ll see rare chalk grassland, beautiful woodlands, the pretty village of Ellesborough and the Prime Minister’s country retreat at Chequers. Feel the fascinating history of the Chiltern Hills, inhabited by people for thousands of years.

• Challenging
• 2 hours 30 mins
• 5.0 miles (8.0km)

Hambleden Mill to Henley-on-Thames – a circular walk

This circular, 6.1 miles (9.8 km) walk starts at the site of an extensive Roman villa complex with a dark history. It then crosses the River Thames via a weir and a lock at Hambleden Mill, before heading upstream along the river bank alongside the regatta course to Henley-on-Thames. This stretch of river is usually busy with boats of many types, and a wide variety of geese, ducks, swans, cormorants and other water birds. In the summer months it is popular with numerous leisure boats.

• Moderate
• 3 hours
• 6.1 miles (9.8km)

Chiltern Hills Three-in-One Walk

A scenic walk linking three National Trust properties in the Chiltern Hills: West Wycombe, Bradenham and Hughenden.

• Challenging
• 3 hours
• 5.5 miles (8.85km)

Bradenham Beech Woods, Bunkers and Ballrooms

This is a medium length walk in the woodlands and meadows of the Bradenham Manor Estate in Buckinghamshire village of Bradenham and neighbouring meadows.

• Moderate
• 2 hours
• 4.4 miles (7.05km)

Hambleden Valley, Turville and Fingest

This 9.5 mile circular walk starts from the village of Hambleden. It crosses the Hamble Brook chalk stream before climbing into the lovely hills and woods to the west of the Hambleden Valley. The walk then descends to the picturesque villages of Turville and Fingest before turning south for a gentle return to Hambleden along the valley alongside the Hamble Brook.

• Challenging
• 4 hours 30 mins
• 9.5 miles (15.25km)

Bradenham countryside trail

This is a short walk around the Buckinghamshire village of Bradenham and neighbouring meadows.

• Easy
• 1 hour
• 2.0 miles (3.2km)

Whiteleaf and The Hampdens

This 7.5 mile walk takes you from Chiltern woodlands near Whiteleaf, then beside Grim’s Ditch to the grounds of Hampden House. It then explores the farmland and wooded hillsides around the Hampden valley, including the remote village of Little Hampden, before returning to Whiteleaf Hill and a viewpoint over the Aylesbury Vale.

• Challenging
• 3 hours
• 7.5 miles (12.05km)

Discover bluebells in the Chilterns Countryside

There’s nothing more enchanting than stumbling across a vibrant carpet of woodland bluebells. There are many places at Hughenden and in the Chiltern Hills where bluebells flourish and they are at their best between mid-April and late May.

Coombe Hill

Enjoy an easy walk to the monument (not NT) for incredible views across the Aylesbury Vale from the highest viewpoint in the Chilterns. Wander back past chalk grassland alive with wildlife to the picnic area where you can explore the natural play trail.

Chilterns Countryside ranger events 2020

Explore the countryside around Hughenden and the Chilterns on a guided walk with our ranger team and find out about the conservation work that supports nature and encourages wildlife.