Brandon Country Park and High Lodge Walks

This was the invite from Joyce... 

"Hi everyone, thank you for letting me know that you are really keen to walk over the next few weeks. I think I can promise you all 'no mud' next week if you want to join me on a walk. One of my favourite walks is Brandon Country Park to High Lodge. Not many of you have ventured to this part of the County but it's a great walk with wide paths for easy walking , talking and 'Christmas Merriment'. 

I am offering this walk on Monday 21st and Wednesday 23rd. Our start time will be 10am from Brandon Country Park (car park £2 cash) Bury Road, IP27 0SU, There are toilets here and a cafe and also the same at High Lodge where we will have an outdoor lunch stop, The first circular loop is 8 miles but this can be extended easily. Presently I have a list of names for Monday and Wednesday so please let me know if you can't still make it? 

Joyce" 

I signed up for the Monday version, which, despite the weather, went ahead. It was pretty wet on the way there and the rain was still falling, although not too heavily. In the end it was just 4 of us.

This was our route for the first walk

Here are a few of my photos.

We met at the Car Park at Brandon Country Park, a favourite place for family walks for me for many years (last visited with Dawn in October - see here and the whole family last New Year - see here), but not familiar to Roland and Julian, who are from the other side of the county.

We headed off towards the entrance to the country park.

As so often when walking here, we had some air cover.... some F-15 jets of the USAF 48th Fighter Wing operating out of RAF Lakenheath. They don't half make a racket when they pass overhead!

The path to High Lodge is very pleasant and broad enough to walk side by side and chat. There seemed to be a couple of bits of mud that we passed by, but as Joyce had promised a 'mud-free' walk, we decided it must be 'fake mud'. It is also well way-marked.

But it was still raining.

At High Lodge, nobody was playing table tennis.

We stopped for our drinks break, and later our lunch break, under the canopies that were covering some of the picnic tables.

While we were having our teas and coffees, this lady got us to answer a questionnaire for the Forestry Commission about our visit today. "What is the best thing about it?", she asked. "No mud", we replied.

We did a little loop from the Vistor Centre via the Beech Walk before stopping again for our lunch. I (literally) liked the sound of the Sound trail through the trees, which was new since I had last brought the family here many years ago. This was the source of the chimes we could hear.

More lovely paths through the trees.

But it was still raining.

Back at the Visitor Centre we had a couple of robins for company as we lunched. This one was close but flew up onto the top of the drainpipe.

Yes the Visitor Centre was opened in 1992.

"Why is it called High Lodge?", asked Julian. We didn't know and this article on the history of the place doesn't say.

We returned the way we came. The rain had stopped now but everything was damp. I loved the way the wet had changed the colour of the birch tree trunks...

...and the beads of water hanging from the trees.

Back at Brandon Country Park, we decided that, as the rain had stopped we would walk some more and do one of the routes in the Country Park. I proposed the Purple Walk, which is about 3 1/2 miles. We couldn't go much further as it was the shortest day of the year and it would get dark early.

This is the route.

Here are a couple more photos.

The Copper Beech cafe was open, but we didn't visit.

There were plenty of leaves underfoot at the start.

Joyce and I found ourselves a bit ahead of Roland and Julian at this point so we stopped to let them catch up.

By the time we got to the heathland part of the park the light was beginning to fade....

...and we could see the lights on in the Care Home across the lake just before the end.

Well, despite the rain at the start, that was a lovely mud-free bit of walking. Thanks Joyce for organising, and Roland and Julian too for the company.

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our routes here and here on MapMyWalk.