Walking The Shakespeare's Way Part 12: Bourne End, Cookham and Wooburn

Start & Finish: Wakeman Road Car Park, 2A Wakeman Road, Bourne End, SL8 5SX
Distance: 8.2 km (5.1 miles)
Elevation change: +/- 83m
Shakespeare’s Way section covered: Bourne End Rail Bridge to Broad Lane, Widmoor: 3.9 km
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): Thames Path, Shakespeare’s Way, Beeches Way, Chiltern Way Berkshire Loop, High Wycombe to Bourne End Disused Railway
Other routes touched (cycle): N/A
Pubs / Cafes on route: Several in Bourne End and Cookham village centres. Also The Ferry (2.4 km in), The Garibaldi (3.7 km in), Chequers Inn (5.3 km in),
Map: OS Explorer Map (172) Chiltern Hills East
Links: Bourne End, Cookham, Wooburn

The Shakespeare’s Way is a 235 km / 146 mile mile long-distance path connecting Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon with the Shakespeare's Globe (Theatre), Southwark, London. A 34km section of the path cuts through the Chiltern Hills National Landscape in a south-easterly direction. Our walks take in short sections of the Shakespeare’s Way and loop back to the start on other paths. The Shakespeare’s Way is reasonably well marked however you’ll need a map or GPX route to keep on track for the return sections of the loops. The guidance below will help but don’t use it as a fully accurate turn-by-turn guide.

For this walk we parked at Wakeman Road Car Park in Bourne End and walked to the River Thames via the footpath to the left of the station. At the Thames cross over the railway bridge and, at the bottom of the steps, take a right to follow the Thames Path in a southerly direction.

Leave the Thames Path at Cookham Bridge and cross over to the north side of the Thames to follow Ferry Lane north. Here you have 2 choices: to follow The Beeches Way by taking the first path on the right after the bridge or to take an alternative route via Hedsor Road. Both options come together around the 5km mark at the top of Harvest Hill. We had already done the Beeches Way option so we took the alternative described below.

Continue north along Ferry Lane the take a right onto Hedsor Road, following it for ~500m to take a left onto Heavens Lea. Cross over Hedsor Hill (road) to follow Harvest Hill (road) in a north-easterly direction to Kiln Lane. Take a left onto Kiln Lane then a right onto a footpath just before the Chequers pub. Follow this footpath all the way down to Wooburn Park then cross over the River Wye and Town Lane.

Take the path to the left of Spake Oak depot to reach the disused Wycombe to Bourne End Railway Line. Follow this in a south-westerly direction to the end at the A4155 Cores End Road. Follow this back to the car park in Bourne End.