Farewell walk… to my boots | Ivinghoe Beacon, Chiltern Hills
Ivinghoe Beacon
Parking : Ivinghoe Beacon, National Trust Car Park, Dunstable, LU6 2EG. No road name for this, it's just a turning off the B489.
We come to Ivinghoe beacon pretty often as it’s located only 15 minutes drive from where we leave. Ivinghoe Beacon is a prominent hill and landmark in Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills and is part of the Ivinghoe Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest and this area forms part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The car park is free, it gets pretty busy on weekends. There aren’t any facilities on site, apart from an ice cream van that always seems to be there when I forget to bring my wallet.
Before writing this post I did some research and found out that The Beacon has been used as a filming location in four Harry Potter films. In 2018 film crews shot scenes on Ivinghoe Beacon for the Star Wars movie The Rise of Skywalker. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it!?
This time I decided to go on a little walk just with Buster. It was a middle of march but weather was amazing. I could really feel the spring in the air. Ziggy was in school and I finished all of my photo editing and admin for the day so I packed some snacks, popped Buster in the boot and off we went.
For this occasion I decided to put on my 10 years old walking boots that honestly should be thrown out at least last year because they are leaking, but I love them so much that I find it difficult to part ways with them yet... They are super comfortable, and are still pretty to wear on dry walks... I bought them in 2012 in TK Maxx for a silly £24.99 and look how long they’ve lasted... Considering that I usually washed them in springs or rivers and only used Nivea cream or bee wax on them they did an absolutely amazing job! But it was really a time to say goodbye, so decided that this stroll will be our last...sadly... exciting thing is that now I need new walking boots, that will hopefully last me as long!
If you’re interested in buying them These are HiTec Walking boots, National Trust edition, Not sure if his exact model is still available and if you manage to find them online, they might not be as cheap anymore.... (I am not sponsored in any way to promote these boots, it’s just my honest recommendation).
This walk was just glorious. It wasn’t very busy as it was a weekday, there was still few walkers we met on our way up. We also spotted a gentleman with a parrot on his arm. I really regret not taking a picture of him!
The Beacon lies within the Ashridge Estate and is managed and owned by the National Trust. It is the starting point of the Icknield Way to the east, and the Ridgeway long-distance path to the west. So there’s so many routes you can take. I decided to do a little circular stroll, starting at the car park. I only had couple hours free before the school run., and wasn’t sure how long it will take us. I walk really fast so I knew I had plenty of time to stop for a picnic or two and just relax and watch my dog enjoying the sunshine. To my slight irritation, he enjoyed it so much that he must have felt very hot and had to jump into the livestock water trough (I had to google the name – it’s that thing animals drink from LOL) and it wasn’t full of fresh water, in fact it was just full of something smelly and disgusting.... I will leave it there..... I think I did about 3 miles on that day, so not a huge distance but it’s exactly what I needed!
