The best family-friendly hikes and walks around Aylesbury Vale

The Fane of Pastoral Poetry is a small octagonal temple of ashlar stone, four sides pierced by semi-circular headed arches. The building originally had a steeply domed roof it is now maintained as a roofless ruin. The temple was built by Gibbs in about 1726-7 on the site now occupied by Queen Caroline's Monument and was known as the Gibbs building. It was originally surrounded by the eight Rysbrack British Worthies. Plans were prepared by Borra to convert it to a Temple of Diana but this was never carried out. It was demolished and re-erected in a simpler form on its present site in the mid 1760's. Also known as the Belvedere and in the sale catalogues as the Egyptian Building. Small roofless structure 1727/3 by Gibbs, as The Belvedere. Re-erected on present site 1760's. Ashlar stone with moulded cornice. Octagonal, 4 sides pierced by semi-circular headed arches, with keyblocks, stepped architraves and impost mouldings. Blank oculi in angled faces. In a glade in the wood at the far end of the Grecian Valley is the small open-sided temple or belvedere designed by Gibbs for Lord Cobham, and first set up as part of the early, western phase of the garden in September 1729. It was originally known simply as ‘Gibbs’s Building’ and stood on a mound (accommodating an ice-house) in an almost exactly opposite relationship to the house, to the south-west, where it provided a viewpoint towards the Rotondo and the Queen’s Theatre, and housed the series of busts by Rysbrack (Bacon, Hampden, Locke, Milton, Newton, Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth and William III) which were later transferred to the Temple of British Worthies in the Elysian Fields. Gibbs’s Building was repositioned by Earl Temple in the 1760s to frame a view of Wolfe’s Obelisk, which he had recently set up outside the gardens to the north, and was rechristened the Fane of Pastoral Poetry. The building also provided framed prospects over the surrounding park, reached via the shady groves of the Grecian Valley. Van Nost’s lead figure of Thalia, the Muse of Pastoral Poetry, was placed just to the north of it. The statue was one of his series of Apollo and the Nine Muses which was removed from the South Vista in the 1740s (see p. 24), but she no longer survives at Stowe. The four terms once outside the Fane are now at Port Lympne. Statue - Muse of Pastoral Poetry - was installed on Tuesday the 4th December 2018. This statue is a direct copy of the c18th lead statue of Heroic Poetry located on the Grenville Column which is attributed to van Nost. Originally (1720s) this statue was locatd on the south front parterre. Source: https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA130213

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The paths from Bittam's Wood have an incredible number of beautifully planted bluebells in the summer, so if you are here in the spring/summer, you are in for a treat! Just a bit further north, Meadow Plots (within Dancersend Nature Reserve) is a lovely place to be, with some special species of butterflies, and grassland and meadowland habitats.

Aston Hill, on which you are here, was part of Lord Rothschild's Estate, and was a motoring venue between 1904 and 1925. Lionel Martin made the first ascent of this hill in a Singer car on the 4th April 1914. Shortly afterwards, in May the same year, at the Herts County Automobile and Aero Club Meeting he was so successful that the first light sporting car registered in his name in March 1915 was called "Aston-Martin". This plaque here was put by the Aston Martin Owners Club and Aston Martin Lagonda Limited. Aston Hill is also a viewpoint, but the panoramic view is obscured somewhat by the tall trees.

Just above The Drive, which is a road through Wendover Woods, there is a terrific viewpoint here over Aylesbury Vale: on a clear and sunny day, there is no better place to be. If you find the bench here unoccupied, it's a terrific place to rest your feet and nourish your soul.

Moderate trail for all to explore

There is a triangulation pillar in the wood, unnamed on OS Maps, at 232m. It's always curious to see these in the middle of the forest; I am guessing this one had been placed here before the area was forested, and previously there would have been a view from here. The wood itself is a pleasant way to walk in, with wide, comfortable forest tracks.

Two lovely, pleasant woods here, just south of Coombe Hill. These are larger woodlands, well-signposted, with wide forest tracks to walk, with lots of colourful flowers in the spring (bluebells!) and summer. In the autumn, expect beautiful orange leaves on the trees. Enjoy the walk!