West Stow Walk

Today we had our first group walk of 2026 - from West Stow Country Park.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Friday January 2nd the first walk of 2026, chosen by Shaun as one of his favourites. We will meet at West Stow Country Park at 10.15am for coffee and aim to start walking around 10.40am. Parking cost £3 or park the other side of the road under the trees for free. Bring your own lunch/drinks as we will stop to eat lunch on a tree stump. A circular walk of 9 miles."

This was our route today. The group last did this walk a year ago today (although I wasn't able to join them).

Here are a few photos.

We met for drinks at the cafe.

It was a lovely sunny day for a walk.

We walked along the edge of the forest for a while.

Looking back we could make out the Bury St. Edmunds sugar factory.

I liked the pattern of the furrows in the field.

We came to Berner's Heath.

There is a square wood in the middle.

Here is an aerial view of Berner's Heath itself.

This article says it was used in the second world war for target practice by bombers, but a commenter last year on my post about an earlier version of the walk post said....

"Sorry its a bit late but I feel I should point out an error in the Daily Mail. That cross of trees was only planted post war so was never used as a bombing target. The real targets were a large circle and a large triangle, both of which are still visible from the air. The triangle was post war though. The bombing range was actually used by the army for most of the war."

You can see the shape best from an aerial photograph like this one from the Defra Magic site.

 "The heath is the largest remaining area of heather dominated heath in the Brecks. It contains blocks of heather of different ages as a result of rotational heather burning conducted as a management strategy. Heather dominates the heath, achieving almost 100% coverage with blocks divided by rides. This allows a variety of different ground cover species to develop in different areas of the heath. In the areas of younger heather this includes species such as sheep’s sorrel and mosses, although in areas where heather is slightly older and growing quickly ground cover is restricted. Older, established blocks of heather have greater biodiversity and include lichens as well as flowering plant species such as heath bedstraw, lady’s bedstraw, common speedwell  and sheep’s fescue. These areas also support a wide range of insect populations." This is why it's a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The heathland.

The wood has a cross-shaped clearing.

We decided to not go past the water buffalo...

...and turned right at the intersection.

In the distance we could see Elvedon War Memorial, which stands just the other side of the A11.

"Dedicated to those from three local parishes who died during the First World War, the Elveden War Memorial was unveiled on 21 November 1921. The unveiling was attended by Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, the younger son of Sir Duleep Singh, a former owner of the Elveden Estate.", says the site. It is a Corinthian column, over 30 metres high and surmounted by an urn.

There are lots of interesting hummocks of grass.

We had our lunch at the usual place.

It is a singlar line of trees.

Back through the forest now. Here we were walking into the sun.

And we were soon back at the start.

That was a lovely walk. Good choice Shaun. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and everyone else to for the additional company. You can find more details of our 8.9 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here).

Other related walks you can find on my blog include

• Lackford and King's Forest Walk (Dec 2019)
• A West Stow Meander  (June 2020)
• Berner's Heath Walk (Feb 2021)
• West Stow Forest and River Walk (Apr 2021)
• Berner's Heath Walk (Nov 2021)
• West Stow Walk (Jan 2022)
• Berner's Heath Walk (Nov 2022)
• Ramparts Field Walk (Dec 2023)
• West Stow and Berner's Heath Walk (Dec 2023)
• B is for Berner's Heath (Jan 2025)