West Stow County Park, Suffolk (2.8 miles)

West Stow Country Park is situated in Suffolk, between Mildenhall and Bury St Edmunds and is part of the larger ‘Thetford Forest’ area.  The park is also home to West Stow Anglo Saxon Village.  

The country park has lots of available footpaths and routes you can take, with some areas being free to roam.  Dogs are allowed but please note the information markers as you go around about keeping them on leads.  We walked in August in fine weather although it had rained the day before.  The grass is long in places.  We wore long trousers and walking shoes.  The car park is gated and locked at night although access to the footpaths is possible on foot from outside the main complex.  Please check the website for opening times of the car park and other facilities.

Small tortoiseshell 

The route we took this time included a double back along the River Lark to check for otters and kingfishers!  For this walk we also missed out the woodland section at the back of the cafe and visitor centre, although we have taken this route previously - great in autumn for fungi walks!  There are signposts and information boards dotted around the trails.

Our first ever sighting of a kingfisher!

1. Parking the car walk back to the entrance barrier and take the path on the right.  Follow the grass trail keeping the road on your left, past the children’s play area on your right, carry on until you reach the end and turn right onto a loose tarmac road.  Take this road towards the Pump House and then keep right.  
2. Follow the grass path round to the right until you come across a small pathway on your left which takes you over a little bridge.  Follow the path towards the river.  Once at the river you should have the weir on your left (no entry here).  This is where we once missed an otter by a few minutes so keep your eyes peeled!  
3. The path runs along side this very pretty section of the River Lark.  Follow the river until you come to a gate.  Once through the gate you have a choice of routes, we took the left hand route, staying with the river on our left.  
4. Eventually you will loose sight of The Lark as the path follows the curve of the lake Once past a car park (often used by fishermen) on the left, keep right until you reach a sandy area.  Again you have a choice of routes, either stay right and keep with the lake or take the gate at the top and follow our route to the right through the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) Brecklands area until you reach another gate.  On this occasion we went right but if you want to take the woodland part of the walk go straight on.  
5. Going right takes you back to the lakes.  We then went left keeping the lake on our right, past a wooden platform until we were back to the footpath junction and the river.   The left hand turn will take you back towards the meadow but, as I mentioned before, we decided to have another look along the river for the elusive otters (not found but did see our first kingfisher!)  We went right down to the end and could have carried on back the way we came past the Pump House and back to the car park but you may notice that half way down the river walk is a turning into the woodland.  We went back to that turning and followed this path through a short section of woodland, bearing right at the end and then left which took us back to the main centre.

Damselfly

Our route was: 2.76 miles 
See the route on Mapometer.com
Terrain: Flat, mostly grass paths.  *Can be very muddy in wet weather
Habitat: Woodland, lakes, river, meadows, heathland
Facilities: Toilets, Cafe, Visitor Centre, Shop, Children’s Play Area, Picnic areas, Anglo-Saxon Village, Car Park

Why not have a look at the rest of my photos from this walk and from an earlier autumnal walk at West Stow