West Stow – 26/01/2020

After a slightly lazy couple of weekends, today was the perfect Sunday for us to get back out the house, strap on our walking boots and enjoy a walk in the beautiful countryside.

Today we decided to head to West Stow Country Park, near Bury St Edmunds. (This was another excellent walk from our ’50 Walks in Suffolk’ book.*) Initially, this caused some panicky flashbacks for Mrs W, when she realised it was the start line of a very painful half marathon undertaken last year, but really we can’t fault the location!

We paid £2 to park for the whole day and then headed into the surrounding woodlands for our 6km walk. The route led us round a lake, populated by geese and ducks (most of which we didn’t recognise at all – we certainly aren’t birdwatchers!) and there were lots of opportunities to stop and enjoy the view. Throughout this first section of the walk, we were passing lots of families, as this path round the lake is an accessible route for children or even pushchairs.

After a loop round the lake, we passed into more woodland and trekked through a wide variety of scenery and pathways. In total, the walk was just over 6km and took us an hour and a half to complete.

West Stow is known for it’s Anglo-Saxon heritage and the country park is also home to a work Anglo-Saxon village. The whole area is steeped in local history, from a variety of periods. This meant that along the route we saw some lovely sights, such as a fascinating stone head, a small wooden shelter, and an old pump house. We love finding little details like this when we explore somewhere new, so this was a real winner for us!

We also took a short break sitting in a bird-hide, which was a first for us both. Overall, an interesting walk that wasn’t too challenging. The route also runs alongside King’s Forest, which (although tricky for half marathon running!) has a lot of options for extending the walk with beautiful woodland trails.

Mrs W’s highlight: Trekking by ourselves through a thickly wooded area, where we couldn’t really see out very far, but we could hear the river rushing by beside us.
Mr W’s highlight: The wooden dragon head that was poking out from under a small hill, with obvious plans to grow something else on top.

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If you’re in the area, this is definitely a route we would recommend. You could follow the AA book* directions, or you can easily adjust this route to make it shorter or longer to suit your needs. There’s also lots for children to see and do around the country park. Definitely suitable for a beginner and you won’t need any particular equipment or footwear.