Icknield Way: Ivanhoe Beacon to Dunstable

Starting directly off after finishing The Ridgeway made the start of this walk fairly easy as it started where the last one had finished. We set of downhill and headed Eastward off at the first waymarker we headed off through a series of small field and then entered a woodland which we followed until it headed steeply uphill and through a farm, where we started to descent towards the small village of Dagnall, via Hog Hall Lane. On the way we saw a few parties of school children all carrying massive backpacks stuffed with camping gear on their way somewhere.

We headed to the Red Lion pub in Dagnall and had a fairly relaxed pint and a chat before heading off through the village, following the path across the expensive looking and busy Whipsnade golf course, after which the route when round the edge of Whipsnade zoo, though there were few animals to be seen, just a solitary deer and some elephants in the distance. We were soon passing through the village of Whipsnade and then though a national trust property, where I think we either switched on to the Chiltern Way or another branch of the Icknield Way, though it really did not matter as they both ended up on the chalk escarpment at Dunstable Down with great views to the North.

The chalk was quite steep here and at the bottom was an extensive plain gently rolling away into the distance. It was quite windy and there were a lot of people flying kites and a couple of paragliders, one of which we got to see take off which was quite interesting. Even more interesting was the airfield full of gliders at the base of the chalk, they were regularly taking off either being towed by plane or a from a pulley on the ground, while a lot of them were also landing. It was impressive to watch them, they looked very graceful with their long wings.

A little further along the ridge there were a series of tumuli known locally as the Five Knolls, this was also the site of some medieval hangings and even more gruesome some Saxon era remains have been found, probably victims of a massacre, so overall the area has had a cheery history. It was a short walk down a hill and into Dunstable where we finished walking for the day. We walked a little further to get a bus in to Luton where we could catch a train back to London