Milton Keynes Boundary Walk

I work for the Open University so spend a lot of time in Milton Keynes; at the time we walked this path I was renting Monday-Friday accommodation in the village of Sherington which is within the Borough of Milton Keynes (though it perhaps prefers to think of itself as being in Buckinghamshire). I love the Open University but I can't say I like the new town of Milton Keynes very much. However, it is surrounded by some beautiful countryside and there are many attractive villages and small towns within the Borough.

The 63-mile Milton Keynes Boundary Walk therefore, whilst winning the prize for the most unpromisingly named long distance footpath that we are likely to walk, is actually a largely rural walk, passing some delightful spots close to Milton Keynes' boundary with Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The Boundary Walk was ideally placed for occasional days of walking when Richard and I were both in the Milton Keynes area and free for walking.

The walk is circular so you can start it wherever you like, so we decided to start in Stony Stratford, where the Milton Keynes Ramblers' guide (which is available as a PDF for download from here) starts, and to walk in a clockwise direction. We started walking on Friday 13th November 2015 and completed the circuit on Sunday 17th April 2016. From Stony Stratford, the path took us on a wide loop to the north of Milton Keynes and Olney (close to the Milton Keynes/Northamptonshire boundary) then round to Turvey and south to Woburn Sands and Great Brickhill (following the Milton Keynes/Bedfordshire boundary) and finally to the south of Bletchley, through Newton Longville, and north and west, close to the Milton Keynes/Buckinghamshire boundary, and so back to Stony Stratford. We walked in sunshine, mist and snow - and, as a result of a mild and moist winter and spring, through quite a lot of mud!

The Walk is waymarked by attractive little oak leaf signs and crosses parts of three Ordnance Survey Explorer sheets: 192, 207 and 208.

The path is shared with various other routes including the Ouse Valley Way , the Grand Union Canal Walk, the Hanslope Circular Ride, the Swan's Way, the Three Shires Way, the Greensand Ridge Walk, the Midshires Way and the North Bucks Way. We had already walked the Ouse Valley Way, and several of the other paths were on our wish list for future walking opportunities in the Milton Keynes area.

For more photographs of our walk around the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk, click here.

First leg of walk