Winter sunshine brightened up the morning of Saturday 14th December as fourteen of us congregated on Ridgemead Road, ready for a six mile walk around Windsor Great Park. This walk was held jointly with the Chiltern Weekend Walkers and Maidenhead Walkers.
Setting off along a quiet road to the Bishop's Gate, we entered the Great Park, where we followed some of the well maintained paths taking us to Snow Hill, via Spring Hill.
We stopped at the top of Snow Hill to admire the statue of King George III on horseback, and to admire the view of the Long Walk to Windsor Castle. Instead of taking the Long Walk we went in the opposite direction along the Three Castles Path as far Cumberland Lodge, passing the Royal Lodge on the way.
At Cumberland Lodge we departed the Three Castles Path, taking a series of path through the park and towards the Obelisk and its pond.
Circumnavigating most of the pond, we then stopped off at some picnic tables by the obelisk (a memorial to the Duke of Cumberland) to have our packed lunch. Those who hadn't brought a packed lunch with them were able to get hot food from a nearby kiosk. After lunch we made our way to the Savill Gardens. The group split up at this point with some choosing to have coffee in the restaurant before visiting the gardens.
Entry to the gardens is free at this time of the year as there isn't quite so much to see, but there were still some autumn colours to enjoy and the gardeners had worked a little magic with some artificial snow in the Temperate House.
Having explored the gardens, we made our way through Chapel Wood, back to Bishop's Gate and then retracing our route back to the cars.
This fairly short walk included many of the varied features that make up Windsor Great Park. It also gave us a chance to mingle with two of the other established walking groups in the area. You can see our route on Bing Maps.
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