Lynford Stag Walk

Today we had a frosty walk in Thetford Forest from the Lynford Stag to Lynford Hall, Lynford Water and Lynford Arboretum and the Desert Rats memorial.

This was the invite from Joyce:

"Monday 23rd January. Lynford Arboretum. This is a forest walk with a lake, coffee shop and a trip to the Desert Rat Memorial. Please meet at the large Lynford Stag parking area on the A134,  IP26 5ET at 10.30am. Toilets at 3 miles with refreshment stop at Lynford Arboretum Cafe, Shepherds Baa .

Then we make our way over to the Desert Rat memorial , back to toilets and back to cars after 11-12 miles. If you wish to shorten your walk then meet us at the Arboretum coffee shop at Lynford Arboretum, Lynford Road, Mundford, Norfolk IP26 5HW at 11.30am and you will walk approx. 6 miles. Lifts available from Bury (contact John) or Mildenhall at 10am. It's a lovely area and worth the drive." 

Here is a map of our route.

I gave 3 ladies a lift from Bury St. Edmunds and a total of 10 of us set out from  the Lynford Stag (we met two more at the café). It was a lovely frosty morning with clear skies and bright sunshine. Perfect!

Here are a few of my photos.

Joyce briefing us at the start.

It was rather frosty out of the sun.

The water here was frozen quite thick.

Nick tried throwing a big branch onto it to see if the ice would break, but it just bounced.

At the grounds of the house, in front of the avenue of sequoias planted in the 1800s to honour the Duke of Wellington, is this statue of bulls fighting - alas now missing some horns and a tail.

It was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1863 and 1864 and bears the inscription "COMBAT DES TAUREAUX CAMPAGNE DE ROME J. CLESINGER 1863".  The marble was described by the Clesinger's friend the critic Theophile Gautier (1811 - 1872) in August 1864: 'The two enemies have given their all as they charge in blind fury, their legs braced, muscles tensed, flanks quivering with the effort; it seems as though the fight will continue, but it is over; one of the bulls has plunged his horn into his rival’s stomach, ensuring that he will soon roll over dead, his hooves in the air, pulling the victor down in his fall".

Looking towards the Hall you can see a number of the trees have been cut down. As this article says, "The trees had been killed by the pathogen Fomes annosus which is prevalent in the Breckland Forests. Humbling to think of a mighty tree being killed by a simple organism".

   

Joyce took us this way to see this patch of snowdrops, but we didn't see any more on the rest of the walk. 

Drinks time.

Then it was on the Lynford Water via the "beach".

The lake was frozen.

Onward now to the Desert Rats memorial.

We walked along the edge of  what the signposts we'd seen on the A134 called" Stanta", the MoD Stanford Training Area. Tessa was able to tell us all about it as she had been on a tour of it once.

As we walked North along the ride through the trees, we found this patch of frost that had been in the shadow of the barrier as the sun passed.

The Northerly point of the walk was the Desert Rats memorial.

We followed a short path through the site, but there was not a lot to see apart from these Nissen huts and several informative display boards. 

They were stationed her for only a few months, from January to May 1944. The headquarters, about 2 miles North-west of where we were was at the dlightfully named Didlington Hall - sadly now demolished.

Lunch was in a sunny clearing at a crossing of paths on our way back.

Back past the lake,,,

...and, after another short stop at the café, on to the Arboretum.

In the late 1940's, trainee foresters started planting the older trees that are now found in the Arboretum. Since then the Arboretum has grown and has over 200 tree species, with future plans to increase the collection. I found that on an old blog post of when I had brought the kids here in December 2006 (see here).

These logs covered in frost looked odd among an otherwise frost-free area.

We crossed the River Wissey here, where a swan and little grebe shared a hole in the ice. I wonder if it is any relation to the cygnets we saw here in 2006?

The reeds in the river were a burnished gold colour in the afternoon sun. 

At a lake we got a view across to the Hall, built on 1858.

Then we retraced our steps to the Stag.

That was a lovely wintery walk. Thanks Joyce for leading us round and to the others for the company.

You can find more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and some more of my photos (including all the display panels at the Desert Rats memorial) here on Flickr.