Walks And Walking – Best New Spring Walks In Epping Forest For 2013

Walks And Walking – Best New Spring Walks In Epping Forest For 2013

Epping Forest receives nearly 5 million visits each year and Spring is a great time to visit these ancient woodlands. Here is a round up of what is new in Epping Forest for 2013 which make great Spring walks.

Epping Forest – The best place to start your walks

One of the best places to start your walk in Epping Forest is Chingford, Essex, where there are plenty of trains from Liverpool Street Station in central London or Loughton, Essex, which is situated on the London Underground Central Line and only a short walk is required before entering the forest near Loughton Camp and High Beach.

Although High Beach has just redeveloped its areas for car parking it gets extremely busy at the weekends so I find that Chingford is better for parking. There is also a new Forest Gateway complex in Chingford, at Dannet’s Hill, including its new and very impressive visitors centre at Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge and Butler’s Retreat Cafe, where you can sit for refreshments and check out the view over Chingford Plain and surrounding Epping Forest.

Walks And Walking – Best New Spring Walks In Epping Forest For 2013 – Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge

Gifford Wood

The Gifford Wood Appeal aims to plant 4,500 trees on a new 5 acre site recently acquired by the City of London in Upshire, extending the forest by planting new trees and creating new woodlands for the benefit of both wildlife and walkers. You can see the full walk here Gifford Wood walking route where I spent an enjoyable few hours in Epping Forest in an area well known for seeing the Epping Forest Fallow Deer.

Connaught Water

There is now a new accessible path around the margins of the lake which is suitable for the whole family to spend a very leisurely hour walking around Connaught Water and not get muddy! Connaught Water is also the start of the Willow Trail walking route which is a fully waymarked easy 3 mile walk.

Walks And Walking – Best New Spring Walks In Epping Forest For 2013 – Connaught Water

Epping Forest websites and events for Spring 2013

The Epping Forest District Tourism Partnership launched a new website developed to provide information on places to visit, eat and stay and how to get to the different attractions within the area with a regularly updated ‘What’s On’ section. You can also visit the official City of London website here.

For the full list of best new Spring walks and events in Epping Forest for 2013 click here and visit here for over 30 walks in Epping Forest .

Walks And Walking – Essex Walks Epping Forest Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge Walking Route

Walks And Walking – Essex Walks Epping Forest Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge Walking Route

This walking route in Epping Forest is just over 6 miles long and starts at the Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge in Chingford Green walking along The London Loop to Sewardstonebury, across the West Essex Golf Club to High Beach before heading back down the Green Ride to the Butlers retreat, Chingford.

I packed up my usual walking gear for a brisk walk in the Epping Forest area with standard walking clothes, walking trousers, walking boots,  jacket in my rucksack with a few walking essentials, mainly snacks and drinks.

Walks And Walking – Essex Walks – Epping Forest Walks – Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge

Walks And Walking – Essex Walks – Epping Forest Walks Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge Original Version

Starting out from the car park opposite the Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge in Chingford I crossed the road and walked right passed Butler’s Retreat turning left on to the pathway where I then went left by the fountain to walk downhill to the area reserved for the long horn grazing cattle just outside Epping Forest. At the junction of paths I turned half right and followed the track along the left hand side of the open space and keeping to the white sign posts and to the forest.

I then kept to the western edge on the track with Bury Road on my left hand side where I then walked straight ahead to Sewardstonebury where I then turned elft to the road and then right along the No Through Road, Hornbeam Lane, with the forest on my right hand side. At the end of the houses I turned left to reach a stile with a footpath signpost and walked in to the West Essex Golf Club. I kept to the right hand side of the course until I reached the 14th tee where I then went right and then left leaving the course to a wide grassy path to a path alongside the right hand side of the field using the communications mast as a guide where the path then went right along a fenced path to Lippitts Road.

I then turned left at The Owl Inn and contiuned my walk passed The Elms Campground following the road round to the left passing Pipers Farm turning right at Danbury by the bridleway signpost for Mott Street. I then walked right and then left along a hedged pathway to a junction of tracks where I then turned right at the signpost for Mott Street following another hedged pathway to Pepper Alley and Mott Street. I then turned right passing the walls of Wallsgrove House walking left at the road and then right by the signpost for High Beach Church where I continued my walk along the road passed the church cemetery to a junction of roads on my left where I then walked down to the metal bar and track on my right. This is the Cetenary Walk, a wide gravel track that meanders gently through the forest and back to Chingford.

Walks And Walking – Essex Walks Epping Forest Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge Walking Route – Centenary Walk

I walked down Centernary Walk as it swings left and then right passing through an open space to a track junction keeping to the main pathway by turning right and then left passing Whitehouse Plain continuing my walk and keeping straight ahead at the next junction of pathways. I then walked left and then right as I rentered the cattle grazing area turning slightly right to the wide grassy path and the familiar white signposts to Butler’s retreat where I then turned left to the road and crossing to the car park on the right just over 2 hours later.

Walks And Walking in Essex – Epping Forest

Walks And Walking in Essex – Epping Forest

Epping Forest is an area of ancient woodland that stretches from Wanstead in East London to just below Harlow in Essex. Epping Forest is a former royal forest originally reserved as a royal hunting ground. Epping Forest offers the perfect landscape for walks with walking routes for all ages and abilities with plenty of wide grassy paths and well maintained gravel pathways. For the more adventurous there are a myriad of cut throughs into the denser woodland and if you like long distance paths then there is The Forest Way, Three Forests Way and sections of the London Loop.

Walks And Walking in Essex - Epping Forest - Connaught Water - The Centenary Walk

Epping Forest sits on top of a ridge between two valleys; Lea Valley and Roding Valley and mainly contains grassland, woodland, forestry, heath lands, rivers, ponds and bogs. A result of glaciations its elevation and thin gravely soil made it unsuitable for agriculture although there is plenty of farmland in use today. There are also small pockets of long horn grazing cattle, fallow deer and the smaller muntjac deer still evident.

Epping Forest walks can be accessed from the main Centenary Walk from Wanstead to Epping as well as from Chingford, Gilwell Park, High Beach, Upshire, Theydon Bois, Loughton and various other towns and villages with good parking, rail and bus routes.

Most Epping Forest walks are fairly short, taking only an hour or so to complete and more suitable for the family rather than the purposeful and experienced trekker. A good pair of walking boots is always recommended but trainers, sandals or shoes are fine if you stick to the main pathways. As with all ancient woodlands you will encounter some mud along the way and sometimes the grass and brambles can be overgrown so a walking stick or walking poles are always handy to move the stinging nettles out of harm’s way.

Although the visual historical references for Epping Forest are Queen Elizabeth I’s hunting lodge and Queen Victoria’s Centenary Walk its history dates back much further than that with the remains of the Roman settlement at Loughton Camp and the Iron Age Hill Fort at Ambresbury Banks. Queen Victoria made a visit to Epping Forest when re-opening it to the general public riding in an open carriage from Connaught Water along Fairmead Bottom to High Beach.

For many of the towns and villages situated near to Epping Forest it gave them the opportunity to graze their animals and a good source of fuel to generate important revenues for the local inhabitants. Whilst Epping Forest has never been cultivated or restricted it has always been managed by man throughout its one thousand year history. Over the last one hundred years or so Epping Forest’s open grassy areas have declined due to the lack of grazing and, as such, has become more dense, cutting off the natural sun light below the trees that facilitated the growth of many plant and floral species that have now become extremely rare or even extinct.

For more information about Epping Forest there is the Epping Forest Conservation Centre, a central location for most walks and walking routes with trails leading you through ancient landscapes of coppiced and pollarded trees all in close proximity to cafes, pubs and transport networks.