Emberton to Tathall End and Salcey Forest

Today we walked the final leg of the Three Shires Way, in an approximately south westerly direction from Emberton to Tathall End, then back to the north on the Midshires Way and the Swan's Way to Salcey Forest. We also followed the Ouse Valley Way and the Hanslope Circular Ride, each for quite some distance, and joined the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk for a short distance to the south of Salcey Forest. There are a lot of long distance paths round here! We played something of a game of cat and mouse with the M1, walking beside it then underneath it to the south of Gayhurst, then back underneath it just after Tathall End, but the walk was much more pleasant than that implies. Conscious of the fact that we will be walking the southern part of the Wealdway in just over a fortnight, we did a slightly longer walk than has been our recent norm. It was a lovely spring "good to be alive" sort of day, though I was still not fully back to health so felt rather tired towards the end of the walk.

We'd stayed in Simpson overnight because of a Newport Pagnell Singers concert that I didn't sing in, having missed too many rehearsals whilst coughing and spluttering - it had been nice to be in the audience and we'd enjoyed the concert. This morning we had a delightful drive, quickly leaving Milton Keynes behind and passing through pretty villages like Stoke Goldington to the car park at Salcey Forest at SP811508, where we managed to find space for one car amidst the horse boxes. We then drove by way of Weston Underwood and Olney to Emberton, leaving the second car at SP887494, almost exactly where we left it last week.

We walked through Emberton, passing the distinctive clock tower, which acts as a war memorial. then on past the the church and we soon left the village behind and climbed, gaining good views down to Weston Underwood. We soon joined the route of the Ouse Valley Way, in a section we last walked (in reverse) on 22nd March 2015 and continued through undulating countryside to Tyringham, where we parted company with the Ouse Valley Way. Tyringham Hall is a stately home, originally designed by Sir John Soane in 1792, with later additions by Edwin Lutyens. The OS map shows it as a "clinic", which is what it used to be, but I understand that it has been privately owned since 2001, with the owners investing £10 million in renovating it, then trying to sell at a price that has dropped from £18 million to £13 million between 2013 and 2018 - and it may or may not have sold now. There is also an attractive church and a delightful bridge, also designed by Sir John Soane, over the River Great Ouse.

We left the Tyringham Estate by way of a grand archway and, turned right onto the B526. After stopping for an apple on a stone wall at the junction, we turned left onto what is notionally a more minor road, though all the cars seemed to be coming this way too! We soon realised that Tyringham Hall is not the only stately home around here, as we got views to Gayhurst House and Church to our right. After about a kilometre on the road, we took a path to the right (with a Three Shires Way sign here; these had been in short supply today) which took us across a field to Brownleys Spinney. On the far side of the Spinney we turned left, with more views of Gayhurst House and Church....and to the M1 which we were approaching.

The path followed alongside the motorway for a while, initially in Hoo Wood, which was surprisingly pleasant. However as we passed underneath the M1, we reached the least good part of the day. There was a sign on the underpass alerting us to dogs ahead and, we were told, we were proceeding at our own risk. Excuse me, but I thought we were on a public right of way...Anyway, as we went past the buildings marked as "Dairy Farm" on the map, several aggressive dogs came after us. We just kept walking, but a couple of the dogs followed, still barking loudly. The worst of it is that the owner was standing by the house, some distance away from the track we were on. He waved but didn't call the dogs back. Suffice it to say that we did not wave back!

We eventually lost the dogs as we turned right along the edge of Little Linford Wood and the walk resumed its restful journey through the undulating countryside. The M1 was only a few hundred metres away to our right, but that wasn't a problem. We left the wood behind and passed Park Farm. The final approach to Tathall End was through a field of field of sheep, with good views to Hanslope Church.

It isn't clear from the OS map where in Tathall End the Three Shires Way ends (or in the more conventional direction of walking it, where it begins) but, just as we emerged onto the road, there was a Three Shires Way sign only pointing back the way we had come, so this seemed to be the place (later confirmed from the LDWA website). We turned right onto the road, now on the Swan's Way and Midshires Way, and in a short distance reached a bench where we stopped for a celebratory lunch (don't get over-excited - we had rather fragile egg sandwiches, made without mayonnaise because we didn't have any).

After lunch we continued to walk through Tathall End, a pretty hamlet with thatched cottages and a stream running alongside the road. The road swept round to the right but we continued straight ahead on a track which took us back under the motorway. A couple of miles further, and a couple of dog legs brought us towards a turning for the final field crossing to Salcey Forest. We realised that we'd been here before, when the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk on 22nd November 2015, when we had come in the opposite direction, past the farm which was now in front of us. I'd probably remembered it partly because last time we'd had some issues with fnding the path and partly because the farm had had a smelly pile of manure next to it.

Last time the section across the field after the turning had been very muddy and it was somewhat muddy today too. However we soon reached the lovely Salcey Forest, where the Milton Keynes Boundary Walked headed off to the right whilst we, with the Swan's Way and the Midshires Way, carried on straight ahead back to the car park.