Follow the drive away from Farnham Common, keeping the car parking area on the left. Pass the cafe and information centre and veer right at the fork just beyond them. Soon reach a gate where you enter the National Nature Reserve's car-free zone. Follow Halse Drive as it curves left and down between trees. At the bottom of the hill swing left into Victoria Drive.
Follow the broad, stoney drive between the beeches, avoiding turnings either side of the route, and eventually reach a major junction with a wide path on the left and right. On the right is a large beech tree with 'Randy 6.9.97' carved on the trunk. If you manage to miss the path, you will soon reach the road. Bear right and go up the slope, keep left at the fork and cross several clearings to reach the road at the junction with Green Lane and Park Lane.
Cross the road to a stile and waymarker and go straight ahead, keeping the boundary on your left. Make for a stile and descend into the field dip, quickly climbing again to pass alongside the grounds of Dorneywood. Walk ahead to the field corner, cross a stile and turn right at the road. Head for a waymarked footpath on the left and cross the field, with the hedge on your left, to a gap in the trees and hedgerow. Through the hedge, turn right and skirt three fields, with a large mansion on the hill to the left. The path cuts between two oak trees in the next field before reaching a gap in the hedgerow.
Turn left out to the road. Pass Common Lane and Horseshoe Hill (a blackboard sign points to the Blackwood Arms) and turn right at the next bridleway. Follow the track through the wood to the next road at Littleworth Common. Go through a kissing gate to the right of The Blackwood Arms and follow the Beeches Way. Beyond a gate continue ahead between the wood and a wire fence and through a kissing gate before following a fenced path. Go through a kissing gate and take the path between the trees of Dorney Wood, entering the Portman Burtley Estate.
On reaching a kissing gate, cross over to the road and continue ahead on the Beeches Way, past the junction of Morton Drive and McAuliffe Drive. Make for the next major intersection and keep right along Halse Drive. Pass Victoria Drive and retrace your steps back to the car park.
Terrain
- Woodland paths and drives, field paths, tracks and stretches of road; 3 stiles
Landscape
- Dense woodland and some open farmland between Slough and Beaconsfield
Dog friendliness
- Keep under strict control
Parking
- Car park at Burnham Beeches; a charge applies at weekends and bank holidays
Toilets en route
- Burnham Beeches
About the walk
Before the Corporation of the City of London bought Burnham Beeches in 1880 for public use and enjoyment, it was described as an area of 'woodland and waste'. Up until that time it had been owned by the Grenville family of Dropmore, and on the estate is East Burnham Cottage, where the dramatist... Richard Sheridan (1751–1816) and his bride spent their honeymoon after they eloped in 1773. Here, he wrote to a friend, '...were I in a descriptive vein, I would draw you some of the prettiest scenes imaginable'. Later, in the 19th century, historian George Grote lived here, entertaining such luminaries as Chopin, Mendelssohn, John Stuart Mill and singer Jenny Lind. It is fascinating to picture these characters strolling among the beeches and admiring their beauty. Ancient woodland Extending to 540 acres (219ha), a National Nature Reserve and a Special Area of Conservation, Burnham Beeches contains the world's largest collection of ancient beeches, with an average age of more than 300 years. On the first part of the walk in particular keep an eye open for some of the oldest, gnarliest trees in all the forest. Many average 400 years old and could come straight out of the pages of a Brothers Grimm fairytale. The steward of the Hundred of Burnham – one of the original Chiltern Hundreds, or Saxon administrative divisions – had an almost impossible job on his hands preventing highway robbery in and around these thick woodlands. The locals were very protective towards the beeches, treating them almost as if they were their own. When the corporation acquired Burnham Beeches, some people protested against the new bylaws in the strongest terms, attacking the keeper and throwing him into a pond. Burnham Beeches was part of a huge forest that stretched across the Chilterns in prehistoric times. Much of that woodland has disappeared over the years, but the beeches at Burnham continue to remind us of that once thickly wooded landscape. The beech is one of Britain's most prolific trees and the county of Buckinghamshire is closely associated with what was once nicknamed 'the Chiltern weed'. Native to southern England, the beech has shallow, expanding roots allowing it to thrive on thin soil where many other trees will not grow. Its thick foliage permits only a hint of sunlight to reach the ground beneath it, discouraging the growth of other plants. As a result, a classic beech wood has a floor thickly strewn with its own deep brown, perfectly sculpted leaves.
Follow the drive away from Farnham Common, keeping the car parking area on the left. Pass the cafe and information centre and veer right at the fork just beyond them. Soon reach a gate where you enter the National Nature Reserve's car-free zone. Follow Halse Drive as it curves left and down between trees. At the bottom of the hill swing left into Victoria Drive.
1 of 5
Follow the broad, stoney drive between the beeches, avoiding turnings either side of the route, and eventually reach a major junction with a wide path on the left and right. On the right is a large beech tree with 'Randy 6.9.97' carved on the trunk. If you manage to miss the path, you will soon reach the road. Bear right and go up the slope, keep left at the fork and cross several clearings to reach the road at the junction with Green Lane and Park Lane.
2 of 5
Cross the road to a stile and waymarker and go straight ahead, keeping the boundary on your left. Make for a stile and descend into the field dip, quickly climbing again to pass alongside the grounds of Dorneywood. Walk ahead to the field corner, cross a stile and turn right at the road. Head for a waymarked footpath on the left and cross the field, with the hedge on your left, to a gap in the trees and hedgerow. Through the hedge, turn right and skirt three fields, with a large mansion on the hill to the left. The path cuts between two oak trees in the next field before reaching a gap in the hedgerow.
3 of 5
Turn left out to the road. Pass Common Lane and Horseshoe Hill (a blackboard sign points to the Blackwood Arms) and turn right at the next bridleway. Follow the track through the wood to the next road at Littleworth Common. Go through a kissing gate to the right of The Blackwood Arms and follow the Beeches Way. Beyond a gate continue ahead between the wood and a wire fence and through a kissing gate before following a fenced path. Go through a kissing gate and take the path between the trees of Dorney Wood, entering the Portman Burtley Estate.
4 of 5
On reaching a kissing gate, cross over to the road and continue ahead on the Beeches Way, past the junction of Morton Drive and McAuliffe Drive. Make for the next major intersection and keep right along Halse Drive. Pass Victoria Drive and retrace your steps back to the car park.
Terrain
- Woodland paths and drives, field paths, tracks and stretches of road; 3 stiles
Landscape
- Dense woodland and some open farmland between Slough and Beaconsfield
Dog friendliness
- Keep under strict control
Parking
- Car park at Burnham Beeches; a charge applies at weekends and bank holidays
Toilets en route
- Burnham Beeches
About the walk
Before the Corporation of the City of London bought Burnham Beeches in 1880 for public use and enjoyment, it was described as an area of 'woodland and waste'. Up until that time it had been owned by the Grenville family of Dropmore, and on the estate is East Burnham Cottage, where the dramatist... Richard Sheridan (1751–1816) and his bride spent their honeymoon after they eloped in 1773. Here, he wrote to a friend, '...were I in a descriptive vein, I would draw you some of the prettiest scenes imaginable'. Later, in the 19th century, historian George Grote lived here, entertaining such luminaries as Chopin, Mendelssohn, John Stuart Mill and singer Jenny Lind. It is fascinating to picture these characters strolling among the beeches and admiring their beauty. Ancient woodland Extending to 540 acres (219ha), a National Nature Reserve and a Special Area of Conservation, Burnham Beeches contains the world's largest collection of ancient beeches, with an average age of more than 300 years. On the first part of the walk in particular keep an eye open for some of the oldest, gnarliest trees in all the forest. Many average 400 years old and could come straight out of the pages of a Brothers Grimm fairytale. The steward of the Hundred of Burnham – one of the original Chiltern Hundreds, or Saxon administrative divisions – had an almost impossible job on his hands preventing highway robbery in and around these thick woodlands. The locals were very protective towards the beeches, treating them almost as if they were their own. When the corporation acquired Burnham Beeches, some people protested against the new bylaws in the strongest terms, attacking the keeper and throwing him into a pond. Burnham Beeches was part of a huge forest that stretched across the Chilterns in prehistoric times. Much of that woodland has disappeared over the years, but the beeches at Burnham continue to remind us of that once thickly wooded landscape. The beech is one of Britain's most prolific trees and the county of Buckinghamshire is closely associated with what was once nicknamed 'the Chiltern weed'. Native to southern England, the beech has shallow, expanding roots allowing it to thrive on thin soil where many other trees will not grow. Its thick foliage permits only a hint of sunlight to reach the ground beneath it, discouraging the growth of other plants. As a result, a classic beech wood has a floor thickly strewn with its own deep brown, perfectly sculpted leaves.
