THE astonishing Dunstable Downs form the Eastern extremity of the Chiltern Hills, it is therefore appropriate that the new state-of-the-art Bedfordshire County Council/National Trust visitor facility should be called the Chilterns Gateway Centre.
This long, low lying building on the skyline of the ridge uses a whole range of green devices to reduce its carbon footprint.
Besides its wood-chip burners, heat reflecting windows and airflushed lavatories it boasts an air intake, 100 metres out on the Downs, which, by channelling wind underground, cools the building in summer and warms it up in winter.
This walk today can be linked to that from Totternhoe (if you fancy a 12+ mile outing.
We leave the edge of the Downs, wind our way through woodland past an impressive quarry and eventually cross Whipsnade Heath to arrive at the Tree Cathedral.
This is another area under National Trust protection.
Created following WWI it contains many tree species. Grass avenues form chancel, nave, transepts, chapels and cloisters, and there is also a dew pond.
The first sight of the view from the Downs on the return journey is one of those big walking moments, after this it is a gentle able back to the Centre.
1. Start
Walk out through the Chilterns Gateway Centre's Car Park , left along the main drive, and return to the main road.
Turn left, and on reaching the obelisk go right. Turn left to Kensworth Quarry. After 40 m go right at a yellow marker post.
Go left and right at later posts to walk along the top of a field with the Quarry over to your left. Continue with trees on right and swing left downhill to be guided by more yellow markers along a dog's leg.
Follow the edge of the quarry, then turn through trees. Just before some steps, go right through a gate to walk along the top of Codlings Bank.
After the next gate, go downhill to another in the right field corner. Go right, up the field edge, passing a derelict barn to join a stony farm track.
Just before a farmyard search for a waymarker on the left and go through a barrier and continue along a fenced path to a road.
2. 1.7 miles/2.7km
Turn right and soon left through a gate to cross a field. In the next, keep forward with the hedge on the left and a wire fence on the right.
Keep forward through woodland to cross a picnic area and car park. Go up to a roundabout and turn left in the direction of Studham, and walk along the road, passing Buckwood Lane on the left.
Continue with care for a mile to turn right through a kissing gate just before the road swings left.
Go along the left edge of a field with Whipsnade Church ahead. At the end of this field turn left in front of a gate (unless you want to visit the church) and walk along the right edge of a field to a lane.
3. 2.7 miles/ 4.4km
Go right. On reaching a common, cross it diagonally right to a brown finger post. Now cross the road to another finger post indicating the Tree Cathedral.
Go forward through the car park and along an avenue of trees which brings you to the South Entrance of the Cathedral (to the left is a plan which identifies the different areas). Leave the Cathedral by the South entrance.
4. 3.4 miles/5.4km
Go right to a gate in the left corner of the field. Walk up the left edge of a field to reach a gate and cross a drive to go right on a fenced path.
Keep forward on what becomes a green lane to eventually emerge suddenly on open landscape with stunning views.
Descend a few metres and then swing right along the ridge, through a gate and keep to the top to return, after a mile, to the Chiltern's Gateway.
Factfile
Starting Point/Parking: The Chilterns Gateway Car Park. This is signed on the B4541 out Dunstable
Distance: Five miles/8km
Time: Three hours will allow ample time to look around the Tree Cathedral
Terrain: Rolling countryside with gentle climbs, some paths will be muddy
Suitability for Dogs: Good (remember that dogs need to be kept under control in fields where there is livestock and at times when birds are nesting)
Stiles: Three
Near: Dunstable and Whipsnade
Refreshments: The Chilterns Gateway Centre serves simple meals drinks and ice creams
Public Toilets: At the Centre
Public Transport: None
Map and Grid Reference: Explorer 182 008195 (The Chilterns Gateway Centre is new and may not be on your map it replaces and is slightly south of the old visitor centre which is now demolished.
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