🥾 Walk 248 - Bagshot Heath and Swinley Forest

On the last Sunday in October, a group of sixteen people and one dog gathered for the walk, and we welcomed visitors from Loddon Valley Ramblers. We had a misty and somewhat overcast day, though remained dry and mild. We had, of course, enjoyed an extra hour in bed with the clock change!

From our starting point at St. Anne's Church, Bagshot, we soon entered Bagshot Heath walking along open tracks. Well hidden in the eastern corner of the Heath is Bagshot Park - home of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. The Heath turns into Bracknell's Swinley Forest, 1100 hectares in size and belonging to the Crown estate. The forest has many different paths and trails popular with families, dog walkers and mountain bikers, with many tracks developed for this sport. We headed to the Lookout through woods with mix of birch and conifer, and before us a Pug walkers' convention. (See the photo of one poor dog in his Halloween outfit!)

We passed the "Go Ape" obstacle course, children's playground and picnic area, which was busy. The Discovery Centre and cycle hire is also on offer to visitors. Here at the central hub we had a short refreshment break and opportunity to use the cafe and WC facilities.

Leaving the centre, we took the Forest Walk with its evergreens and rhododendrons, heading for the Lower Star Post deeper into the forest. We managed to miss our turning but with help from our map and members of the group with GPS, found our way along the Roman road to the right point. From here we diverted off towards the Barossa nature trail. This led us close to the Army training area, where we came across a unit on a training exercise and were ushered around them. We think the rifles were using dummy bullets?!

A little further on we reached an open high promontory with misty views over Oldean Common. Following a steep downhill, we paused for lunch in a flat area now regenerated following the fire of 2011.

Back on leafy tracks and trees showing their autumn colours we head up to Saddleback Hill (650m) and back into Surrey. Here the sandy path widened and was straddled by a series of huge electric pylons with views back down into the valley. At the crest of the hill we forked left through pine trees heading for the BT Relay Tower. We could barely see the top as it was covered in mist. Unfortunately, we took our second wrong path - they all look the same in the forest!! Again, after a short backtrack we joined another track to link back to the woodland path and bridleway leading out the forest, past the upmarket Pennyhill Park Hotel Golf & Spa to rejoin Church Rd and back to the walk start.

Our thanks go to Ian, Mike and visitor Colin who assisted with GPS positions, and the group who were very understanding with our navigational blips! Interestingly we did not go wrong on either of these points on the pre-walk!!

Thank you to Kathy and Ann for leading the walk, for writing it up and for providing the photos.

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