Distance 6.5 miles (10.4km)
Classification Moderate
Duration 3 hours 30 minutes
Begins Chilterns Gateway Centre, visitor car park
OS grid reference TL008193
Walk in a nutshell
A bracing ramble up in the Bedfordshire hills that is perfectly designed for families. It's dog-friendly, boasts rare wildlife and prehistoric sites, and has exhilarating views across the Vale of Aylesbury. It's a bit much for buggies or to carry children along, but there's a shortcut halfway if you're flagging.
Why it's special
The downs are high and breezy with plenty of flat and grassy ridges, making this ideal kite-flying territory. A selection of kites are on sale at the visitor centre. This walk also takes in Ivinghoe Beacon, a prominent landmark in the Chilterns which stands 233m above sea level.
Keep your eyes peeled for
Five Knolls, a series of small bumps visible against the skyline as you approach Dunstable. These are ancient burial mounds from the late stone age and early bronze age, though they continued to be used for Roman and Saxon burials. Towards the end of the walk, the sunken trackways are a great place to spot the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly (pictured). You may also see gliders launching from the gliding club in the valley below, or paragliders skimming along the chalk ridge in search of a thermal.
Recover afterwards
There's an excellent cafe in the Chilterns Gateway Centre. It hosts a local producers' market on the first Sunday of each month and craft days for young children on Thursdays in term time – plus it holds the record for the largest scone ever baked (it was a metre wide and weighed 60kg, since you ask).
If it's tipping down
The Pitstone Green museum of rural life, near Ivinghoe , is home to a wonderful range of old machines, but it's only open on certain summer Sundays and bank holidays, so do check. Otherwise, there is a range of attractions in Luton, such as the Stockwood Discovery Centre , and its collection of geological and historical artefacts.
How to get there
From just outside Luton station, catch the Arriva 61 bus towards Aylesbury. Alight at West Street, Dunstable, from where you can join stage two of the walk.
Step by step
1 From the car park, walk slightly downhill over the grass area, then turn right following the path along the top of the slope, past the site of the medieval warren as far as the Five Knolls tumuli.
2 Continue downhill to West Street, which runs along the line of the Icknield Way.
3 Cross West Street on to Green Lane opposite, known also as Drovers Way. This is part of a network of tracks and paths in and around Dunstable, traditionally used by drovers to take livestock to market in Dunstable, but now popular with walkers and horse riders.
4 Continue as far as the crossroads. In the field diagonally to the right, the line of trees mark the rampart of Maiden Bower, an iron age hill fort. Continue to the next crossroads and turn left along the Houghton Green Highway into Totternhoe village.
5 Cross Dunstable Road and follow Furlong Lane, turn left on to Church Road and left again on to Well Head Road. Follow this as far as the Icknield Way, near Well Head.
6 Cross the road and follow the bridleway opposite as far as the base of the downs.
7 Turn right at the end of the bridleway. Follow the footpath at the bottom of the slope, through the fence, until a track is reached on the left. Note: for a shorter walk, follow this track uphill and back to the starting point along an ancient hollow way.
8 Pass through a gate, turn left uphill for 45m, then turn right up a sunken track way. This path has been eroded over many hundreds of years by sheep walking to drink around Well Head. Follow this path as it climbs up the downs and then back to the bottom.
9 Join the footpath that follows the bottom of the downs.
10 Just before the road, join the bridleway that climbs uphill, looking back at views of the Vale of Aylesbury and Ivinghoe Beacon.
11 With the car park on your right, carry on uphill and turn left into a large grass field. Please keep your dogs on a lead in this field as there may be sheep grazing.
12 Follow the hedge line at the top of the field, with more views of the Vale of Aylesbury on your left. You're following the Ridgeway Link, which joins Dunstable Downs to Ivinghoe Beacon. After walking under a number of beech trees and passing through a bridlegate, the Chilterns Gateway Centre soon appears on the right.
