Chiltern Walks: Hambleden and Medmenham
River Thames between Mill End and Medmenham
Start & Finish: Car park next to the Stag and Huntsman, Hambleden, Henley-on-Thames RG9 6RP
Distance: 9.1 km (5.6 miles)
Elevation change: +/- 85m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): The Chiltern Way, Shakespeare’s Way
Other routes touched (cycle): None
Pubs / Cafes on route: The Stag and Huntsman at the start and finish
Map: OS Explorer 171: Chiltern Hills West, Henley-on-Thames and Wallingford
Links: Hambleden, Medmenham
This is part of a series of short circular walks in the Chilterns. The guidance below will help you navigate but don’t use it as a fully accurate turn-by-turn guide. Always take a map and/or a GPX route and prepare well for the weather and terrain.
For this walk we parked in the private car park behind the Stag and Huntsman. Although there’s free on-street parking in the village, it gets very busy and takes away from the old-fashioned feel of the village. The car-park, at time of writing, can be paid only by phone via an app or text.
From the car-park walk through the village past the church and the village stores to the small bridge over the Hambleden Brook. Immediately after the bridge take a footpath on the left that crosses fields and follows the Hambleden Brook in a southerly direction. The path ends 1.3 km from the car-park at a small road leading to Rotten Row. Take a right onto this road then a left onto Skirmett Road. Continue along the pavement on Skirmett Road until it ends at the A4155.
Take a left onto the A4155 and follow it for 100m. Cross over the road and into a small parking area to the left of the last house on the south side of the A4155. Walk through the car park then take a left onto a path that leads to Ferry Lane. Continue along Ferry Lane to the end where there’s a footpath junction. Take a right to follow the path along the side of the field towards the river. Follow the path next to the river for 2.2 km until you reach the small bridge over a stream at (a different) Ferry Lane.
Here’s you’ll find an elaborate monument to a legal case regarding the ferry that used to cross the river here. The inscription says “This monument was erected to commemorate the successful action fought by Hudson Ewbank Kearley First Viscount Devonport which resulted in the Court of Appeal deciding on the 28th of March 1899 that Medmenham Ferry is public”.
Take a left onto Ferry Lane, following it for 300m until you reach a footpath on the left opposite the last house on the right. Follow this footpath until you meet the access road to the large estate to the left of the footpath. The access road is private but there’s a footpath that runs parallel to it on it’s western edge. Follow this path in a northerly direction until a path juction near a stream. Cross over the stream and continue along the path in a north-westerly direction to meet the A4155.
Cross over the A4155 to take the first footpath on the right. This leads steeply up a hill into woodland that’s part of the Hambleden Estate. Keep to the right at the first footpath junction on the hill to takes the path that leads to the small road to Rotten Row. Cross over and continue along the footpath until you’re back at Hanbleden.
