Milble three

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

I walked this on a chilly Sunday morning, from Milton Keynes to Bletchley. It had rained quite a lot in the last week.

From MK station, you quickly cross the railways and the A5 over a bridge. Then a lovely section through the Teardrops Lakes park, where the autumn colours were gorgeous (photo #1). Crossing under the H7 Chaffron Way, was however not possible as the National Bowl was temporarily blocked off (this past week, photo #2) for the PM's BS AI summit. In normal circumstances you can walk here, so I will not mark this as an access issue. After going past the dinosaur adventure golf at Furzton Lake, the route weaves through residential and backstreets (photo #4, #5). There was one section where there was too much water on the path (just south of Barleycroft, photo #3), but this was easy to walk around. The route then goes towards the H8 Standing Way roundabout, which you cross under, before having to go slightly alongside V4 Watling Street. This was the least pleasant section, and why I marked it as 4 stars. I would probably change the route south of Barleycroft to go all the way Parkside. And then use that to cross under the H8 Standing Way to Kincardine Drive and then follow Angus Drive to pick up the route at Buckfast Park. IMO, that would make this a 5 star route. Then the route skirts around the outside of Bletchley Park (photo #6) along its north side, before going a little along Sherwood Drive to finish at Bletchley Station.

Good route making the most of Milton Keynes’ excellent pedestrian network.
Walked MK to Bletchley, blazing hot ~29°C summer’s day. No trouble following the route as drawn. Despite the MK trees, some sections were exposed, and though the route is short, in these conditions I was glad to have good sun protection and a lot of water on board.

There are steps at Furzton Lake - no handrail (photo 1). If you don’t want to do steps there is a step-free option Milble Four, which misses Furzton Lake in exchange for Watling Street.
At Furzton Lake (photo 2) there was a refreshment bar and outdoor seating area next to a Italian restaurant. It’s strictly segregated: my attempt to sit inside for my drink (because air con) was met with a ‘I don’t think we have any space’ response while I surveyed an acre of cool empty tables …

Approaching Bletchley, I planned on breaking away from the route to skip into the National Museum of Computing along Flowers Walk.
I discovered it isn’t possible to do this: the museum can only be accessed through the main entrance to the Bletchley Park complex, along Jemima Way, which is further along the route, shortly before the meeting point at Bletchley station. Don’t pay for Bletchley Park entrance (unless you want to of course), the computer museum charges separately and it’s a lot lot cheaper!

At the museum there’s a small refreshments area, and I very much enjoyed my visit.

The walk is well drawn, safe, easy, stays almost entirely off busy roads, and with the added bonus of passing right by an interesting heritage site I’m going to award 5 stars.

Plays to the strengths of the city and gets away from the traffic better than Milble 4, but does encounter a set of steps in Furzton Park which means it isn't completely accessible for all. A safe, direct, offroad and enjoyable walk. I did have problems downloading the gpx for this route but managed to plot it. I reported this.

Share your views about this route, give it a star rating, indicate whether it should be verified or not.

Include information that will be useful to others considering to walk or wheel it.

You can add up to 15 photos.