Activities at Chilterns Countryside

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)

Watlington Hill

Discover fine views and fine 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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)

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)

'Exploring the Chiltern Escarpment': a walk between Coombe Hill and Whiteleaf Hill

This 10 mile walk offers a range of panoramic views across the Chiltern Escarpment and the Aylesbury Vale. See a range of historical and archaeological sites, as well as the pretty village of Ellesborough and the prime minister’s country retreat at Chequers. With several important ecological habitats, ranging from rare chalk grassland to archetypal Chiltern beech woodlands, you’ll also pass through the largest remaining area of natural box woodland in Britain.

• Challenging
• 5 hours
• 10.0 miles (16.05km)

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)

West Wycombe: Ridges and Bottoms

This 8 mile walk heads northwest of West Wycombe to some beautiful countryside and woodland with far-reaching views.

• Challenging
• 4 hours
• 8.0 miles (12.85km)

Chiltern Hills, Valleys and Woodlands Walk

This is an 8 mile (13 kilometre) walk starting in the National Trust’s Bradenham Village and leading you through a mix of chalk meadows, beech woodlands and a variety of farmland.

• Moderate
• 3 hours 30 mins
• 8.0 miles (12.85km)

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)

Pulpit Hill and the Grangelands & Rifle Butts Nature Reserve

This is a short walk offering panoramic views across the Chiltern Escarpment and the Aylesbury Vale.

• Moderate
• 1 hour
• 1.3 miles (2.05km)

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)