🥾 Walk 470 - Crowthorne, Horseshoe Lake and Heath Pond

On Sunday 1st August, nine of us set off from Crowthorne Station for a 6.5 mile walk. Our route took us through the well-kept grounds of the prestigious Wellington College, along what is called The Kilometre, as that's exactly how long the road is that links the two perimeter gates.

We left Wellington College close to the bottom of Crowthorne High Street, from where we entered Edgbarrow Woods Nature Reserve, which comprises of a mix of woodland and heathland.

Crossing over the railway line, we entered Ambarrow Woods, walking past Ambarrow Hill, which might have one time been a staging hill where monarchs stood to shoot deer.

Our next point of interest on the route was Horseshoe Lake, where there was plenty of activity to entertain us, in the form of paddle boarding. It was here that we had a short drink stop, during which there was much discussion about the skills required to paddle board successfully, which is not something that some of us felt confident trying!

After walking round Horseshoe Lake, we headed up to Coalpit Copse (highly recommended in the Spring for beautiful carpets of bluebells) and made our way up to the heather clad Finchampstead Ridges, which is an area managed by the National Trust. Here, we enjoyed lovely views as we stopped for lunch.

Crossing Wellingtonia Avenue, which is lined with over one hundred giant sequoia trees, we then visited Heath Pond and compared with previous years, we were surprised to see the abundance and number of varieties of water lilies on the pond this year.

From Heath Pond it was just a short walk back to Crowthorne Station. It was lovely to welcome four guests to the group for this walk and we hope they will join us again.

Thank you to Sue for leading this walk, for writing it up and providing the photos.

📸 Back to Volume 37

Return to volume index