dog friendly

Sunday Morning Stomp at Sheringham Park

Walks

With the summer holidays starting in earnest this week Muddy Boot’s Matilda was a little apprehensive about facing the crowds this weekend, but had an early parking slot booked at Sheringham Park, North Norfolk.

The National Trust is still operating on a ticketed entry to their car parks to allow for limited guests, we had booked these tickets a while ago and forgotten about them but were keen to get out of the city for an hour or two.

We were greeted at the entrance to the car park by some lovely volunteers who explained that the car park now had a one way system, only half the loos were open and the cafe was offering a takeaway service. They also told us when the gates were to be locked so we didn’t get trapped in the parkland overnight.

Whilst Sheringham Hall is privately owned, you are free to explore the staggering 1000 acres of land that surround it. Our favourite area of this is populated with giant rhododendrons and azaleas; they have been planted there for so long that they create dark corridors and twisted passageways under the canopy.

We managed to catch one of the remaining rhododendrons still in bloom.

The best time to see them in their glory is mid-May to early June.

We followed the “blue” walk which took us through the rhododendrons, out via the hall and back up the hill via the Temple. It was a quick hour’s stomp but did take us through the path of some very dozy cows!

A blurry shot of the view from the Temple hill, you can just make out the sea through the trees and a glimpse of the Hall in the center.

It was a lovely Sunday morning stomp (not too muddy) and reinforced how well the National Trust are handling the situation! We will be back again soon no doubt! A few dogs joined us on our walk, although they had to be kept on leads for the sake of the herd, there is also a section of the walk that is wheelchair accessible, as well as disabled toilets at the car park.

Fir Trail at High Lodge

Walks

High Lodge, run by Forestry England, is located in Thetford Forest, the largest lowland pine forest in Britain. We braved one of their 5 walking trails, as they re-opened with covid limitations in place from the 23rd of May.

The car park was already quite full at around 10am, everyone and their aunt had decided that today was a brilliant day for a cycle! We quickly (and safety) wound our way through to the service desk to purchase a map and then headed away from the hoards off into the woodland.

Thetford’s High Lodge is not only home to lovely trails for walking, they also offer a wide range of cycle paths with a dedicated cycle hire. The site also boasts a large cafe and snack shop, Go-Ape treetop adventure and smaller activities such as archery and trampolining. This main hub attracts a lot of guests, even during Covid, but we were pleased to see there were floor markings for high-traffic areas, and sanitiser stations spread out.

We decided to follow the Fir Trail, a 5km moderate route, as this offered us a chance to also see the Future Forest installations as we walked. The future forest is a series of statues throughout the forest that are based on classical themes and appear almost as staged characters lingering in the trees. They each have a structure surrounding them and are brightly painted to contrast with the dark shade of the undergrowth.

As we followed the path further away from the lodge we encountered many of the cyclists as their routes were often intertwined with the trail or crossed over it. Everyone seemed in a brilliant mood, enjoying the unexpected good weather and time outdoors.

Early on in the Fir Trail, there is a pair of huts that belong to the Heritage Trail, an alternative route that looks closely at the history of the landscape and how it is still “farmed” today. This route, although shorter is High Lodge’s answer for a wheelchair accessible route, and also offers more regular seating along the trail.

Marathon Boy, based on the statue of the same name discovered in 1952

We passed by a few of the statues on the future trail as they had a collection of adoring fans, however we found Marathon Boy all alone in his clearing so stopped to take a closer look. He is found in an area of the trees that are suffering from blight, and the Forestry Commission highlighted this in a great way that even young kids could understand.

After finishing our loop on the fir trail we had a speedy picnic by our cars as the crowds had gathered in earnest while we were gone. We followed this by completing the smallest loop High Lodge has to offer, the Nature Trail . This short (1.5km) loop is hidden towards the exit of the car park and contains some beautiful information boards about the local wildlife.

Boots in a muddy puddle
We even found a muddy puddle to make sure it was a proper walk!

After a lovely day in the sun we decided to head home!

Parking was a little steep and ended up costing £12.50 for the day, the toilets were clean and at limited capacity, and there was extra portable facilities to cope with the numbers.

Have you been to High Lodge before? Which walk did you explore?