[1] Starting from the parking area the route travels in a South-westerly direction along The Ridgeway, that is, keep Chinnor to your right as you walk.
Cross the Chinnor road with care. Cyclists often come down this hill silently and at high speed!
Follow The Ridgeway for 1.5 km/1 mile.
(A) The Ridgeway is an ancient track-way that used to be much wider than it is today. It was already well established when the Romans came to Britain. It was probably an animal migration route long before man started to use it.
The two quarries that you occasionally glimpse on either side of the track are joined by a tunnel that passes under The Ridgway. In the past these quarries have been used as a setting for a Bond movie and to test the machines that bored the Channel Tunnel. The quarries are now being preserved as sites of special scientific interest not just for their flora and fauna but also for the way they reveal the chalk geology of Bledlow Ridge.
[2] As the left-hand quarry comes to an end there is a gate through to a nature reserve. Past the right-hand boundary fence of this reserve is a footpath - pass it and continue along a narrower part of the Ridgeway now going slightly downhill.
You come to a four-way footpath junction. Turn left along the uphill path signed 'Restrictive Byway'. (see photo)
This path soon takes you into the woods. Stay on it, travelling steadily uphill bearing slightly left as an old boundary dyke comes into view above you. Eventually you come out of the woods onto a tarmac road.
[3] As you emerge from the woods you will see a rough lay-by to your right. Find the marked footpath back into the woods at the far side of the lay-by from where you first entered it. Follow this footpath into the woods looking for arrows on trees to keep you on track. Keep the left edge of the wood in view for the first half mile or so.
After this left edge turns sharply away from you, carry on straight for 0.7 km/ half a mile or so and cross a similar path at right angles; the path now slopes increasingly downward. Keep going downhill and a smidge East of South for another 0.2 km/one furlong.
You reach a confluence of paths where your path joins another path that comes diagonally from the right while another path curves upward to your left. Keep going straight ahead here and continue downhill a further 0.2 km/one furlong.
[4] Your path will meet a track on the left indicated by a blue footpath marker. Turn onto this track which will get wider as you progress. This is Collier's Lane.
The route follows this path for one and a half miles keeping to the lowest part of the woodland valley.
(B) 'Collier' originally referred to someone who made charcoal. Charcoal burners lived and worked in these woods as did bodgers who made chair legs and bottoms for the Buckinghamshire furniture industry. Both trades would take their goods to Wycombe market along tracks like this.
Collier's Lane was once part of the original Oxford to London road, now the A40. The route was moved to the top of the hill (on your right) in the eighteenth century because the valley bottom was prone to flooding. It was one of the earliest Turnpike Roads to be set up and established Stokenchurch as a thriving community.
This woodland supports a wide variety of animal life including deer and the newly established Red Kites.
[5] The woodland clears on the right hand side of the track and then on the left. Once clear of the trees stay on Collier's Lane for one km/half mile approximately. Eventually a range of farm buildings become visible to your far left, this is part of Grange Farm. You reach a footpath sign where the Chiltern Way cuts diagonally across your path. Turn off diagonally left here following the Chiltern Way across a field.
Once you reach the farm buildings go through a gap in the hedge on the right. The path can be then be seen rising up the hillside to the ridge in the distance. Cross the Grange Farm tarmac track and continue up the hill.
(C) You are now coming into Radnage, unusual in being a village without a centre. This is Town End and the other quarters are called The City, Bennett End and Beacon's Bottom. In the church yard is buried a man who is reputed to have killed the last bear in Britain. In 2004 a vineyard was planted on one of the sheltered slopes of Daws Hill. Prize-winning wine has been produced here for several years now.
[6] At the top of the hill is an open gap between two fields. This gateway is an excellent place to have a banana break. The views are superb on a clear day. (see photo) Pass through the open gap and to your immediate right there is a latch gate. Pass through the gate and follow the path to a second gate.
[7] Negotiate the second gate and cross the small tarmac road. Pass through a third gate and follow the path to the left. At the tarmac road turn right and follow it downhill in between trees.
Alternatively, After passing through the third gate follow the path to the right. On clear days this path gives excellent views out towards Beacon's Bottom. The penalty for these views is that you add in an extra climb that the other route avoids. The path eventually breaks out onto a tarmac road. Turn left, go down the road for a short distance before turning left at a T junction. Walk uphill for a while and you will rejoin the walk at [8] except you will approach the sharp bend and bridle path from the opposite direction thus the tarmac bridle path will be on your right as you approach.
[8] On a sharp right-hand bend (or left-hand bend) there is a tarmac bridle path off to the left (or right). Turn left along this path until the tarmac surface turns right into a gateway while the footpath narrows and becomes soft underfoot.
[9] Less than 0.4 km/a quarter of a mile after the tarmac ends the path veers left and a footpath can be seen straight ahead over a stile and across a field.
Follow the field footpath down the dip and up into the next field where there is a steady uphill climb alongside the right hand hedge field boundary. After the ground has levelled off the path enters a small copse where wild garlic flourishes. Leave the copse for a short walk to the Chinnor Road keeping close to the right hand edge of the field. (For those who care about such things it's all downhill from here on.)
[10] Turn right at the road, keeping to the grassy verge, and you can almost see the footpath sign right on the sharp bend ahead; it turns left off the road. This path runs down the Badger's View Farm driveway then round the side of the farm buildings.
The route past the farm buildings is immediately to the left of the main farm gate. This narrow section of footpath can be overgrown. It eventually pops back out onto the Chinnor Road.
[11] Turn right on the road and you can see what appears to be a junction. The right turn is in fact a cul-de-sac called 'Hill Top Lane' . Turn right at this junction, following the tarmac road past many impressive gateways until you see a downhill footpath sign to the left.
[12] This path goes steeply downhill alongside the nature reserve and eventually meets up with the Ridgeway again. Turn left here onto The Ridgeway and the car parking area will come into view very shortly.
(D) The nature reserve is run by BBOWT and is partly open chalkland and partly woodland. You can divert to the right if you wish to have a look, then return to the route the same way. If you have a dog with you please keep it on a short lead.