Distance: 23 miles (37 km)

Location: Hillingdon, continuing into Buckinghamshire

Start: Coombe Hill, Bucks (GR SP 849-068)

Finish: Denham Lock (GR TQ 053-862)

Factor: South Bucks Way

Terrain and surface: Mostly level or downhill, with one fairly short and gentle climb. Mostly on rough paths and tracks. Number of stiles not known. 5.0km (3.1ml) beside roads

Points of Interest: Amersham Old Town, River Misbourne, Shire Lane, Denham village, River Colne, Grand Union Canal, Denham Lock

A fine route starting at Coombe Hill, near Wendover in the Chilterns, and finishing just inside the Greater London boundary at Denham Lock. You can sample it by travelling to Amersham on the Metropolitan Line and walking back to Denham, a good full day's walk of 19km (12ml). By starting there you cut out most of the climbing, but also miss some of the best scenery. The station is actually in Amersham-on-the-Hill, and you descend to the old town to pick up the South Bucks Way.

The route then follows the valley of the delightful River Misbourne for the next 8km (5ml) past Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter. Most of the time you are in open country, on level paths and tracks through fields at the foot of the Chiltern slopes, occasionally walking beside the river but usually a little way from it. You must climb fairly steeply out of Chalfont St Peter, but soon descend again across the M25 motorway to enjoy fine views across the Colne valley with its flooded gravel pits. Here you share the route of the Old Shire Lane Circular Walk (not covered in this book), then take care walking along a lane with no pavement to reach Denham Green, where the station is located. You follow the quaintly named Pyghtle Footpath into picturesque Denham village, where the Misbourne flows beside the road.

The final stretch is shared with the Nine Stiles Circular Walk across the River Colne to finish at the towpath of the Grand Union Canal, well used by other routes in the London network (see above). For transport you can either return to Denham or turn right along the towpath for a further 2.2km (1.4ml) into Uxbridge.