Houghton Conquest, Houghton House and King's Wood

The walk leaves the village and heads south through flower-rich meadows. These were once part of the glebe lands attached to the moated Old Rectory, and are used partly for grazing and partly for haymaking, allowing flowers such as cowslips, dropwart, restharrow, knacpweed, saw-wort and three species of buttercup to flourish. The Glebe Meadows give way to the slopes of King's Wood. Both areas belong to Bedfordshire County Council and are together designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

King's Wood, covering a northern slope of the Greensand Ridge, has been woodland since the last Ice Age and contains many unusual plants and animals. The small, shy muntjac deer, a native of Asia which has escaped from private parkland, now frequents the area. The trees are mainly ancient oaks, ash and maple; wood anemones, yellow archangel, pendulous sedge, wood spurge and bluebells all grow in the wood.

The walk follows a bridleway which climbs steadily up the slope of the Greensand Ridge, through rolling fields and pasture, to reach the crumbling red brick and Totternhoe Stone remains of Houghton House. The ruin dominates the claypits and brickworks chimneys of Marston Vale.

Houghton House returns some fine classical features, including a magnificent Italianate columned loggia and a frieze with the heraldic devices of the Sidney and Dudley families. It was built by the Countess of Pembroke, the sister of Sir Philip Sydney, in 1615, supposedly to a design by Inigo Jones. Later, it was occupied by the Earls of Ailesbury, and in the 18th century, it became the property of the Duke of Bedford. It was eventually partly demolished by him after the occupant, his son the Marquess of Tavistock, was killed in a riding accident.

The House is said to have been the inspiration for the 'House Beautiful' of John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress. Bunyan was born nearby and travelled the lanes of rural Bedfordshire, preaching in the local villages. From Houghton House, the walk follows the Greensand Ridge Walk, a long distance path running for 40 miles (65 kilometres) between Leighton Buzzard and Gamlingay.

The route then leads through King's Wood and skirts the Glebe Meadows and the beautiful Georgian Old Rectory. This moated building was constructed for Zachary Grey, a famous scholar of his time, who was rector here from 1724 to 1766. A path past Church Farm leads you into Rectory Lane and back to the start of the walk.