Bluebell Walk

Today we did our annual Bluebell Walk from Suffolk Food Hall, Wherstead. This was the invite from Joyce.

"Monday April 20th is our lovely Bluebell walk from Suffolk Foodhall, Wherstead, Ipswich IP9 2AB. The Foodhall opens at 9am if you want toilets/drinks before we start at 10am. This circular walk is 11.5 miles but it will be at a sensible pace for everyone to enjoy. We will head to the Ancient Freston Woods and then our lunch stop at Alton Water for drinks/toilets/ice cream. Pls bring a packed lunch. After lunch we walk to my favourite parts of the bluebell woods. Free parking at The Suffolk Foodhall. "

This was our figure-of-eight route, going clockwise all the way.

Here are some of my photos.

We were first to arrive at the Food Hall.

The others arrived and we set off on time.

Approaching Freston Wood we could see the bluebells from a distance.

At the lower end there is lots of wild garlic (ramsons).

But as we climbed there were more bluebells.

Having got left behind taking photos, I got left behind as the rest of the group visited Freston church briefly. It was closed so they couldn't go in. Meanwhile I had overtaken them, but knew the route so kept going knowing they would catch me up soon enough. I passed the grade II listed Bond Hall.

I stopped at the corner of Cutler's Wood. Here are the others.

Cutler's wood is private so we couldn't walk down this path.

Our drinks stop was at the crossing point of our figure-of-eight walk.

Dawn thought she saw some deer here, but it turned out to be hares.

We had to walk through some rape plants.

Lunch was by Alton Water visitor centre.

We returned the way we came across the dam. Here we got a view of the bell tower at the Royal Hospital School.

We followed the path around Alton Water.

Our group photo of the day.

Then on to our main bluebell wood - Great Birch Wood.

We returned along the path on the western edge of Cutler's Wood.

It was downhill from here to the end, with views of the River Orwell...

...and some deer.

We passed Wherstead Church with its lovely lich gate.

A lovely walk, as ever, and I think the bluebells were the best we've seen them. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and thank-you everyone else for the additional company.

You can find more details of our 11.2 mile route on MapMyWalk here, or OS Maps here (or download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other related walks you can find on my blog include

Shotley Peninsula Bluebell Walk (Jul 2028) (but without the bluebells)

Suffolk Walking Festival Bluebell Walk (May 2019)

Not The Suffolk Walking Festival Bluebell Walk (May 2020)

Bluebell Walk (May 2021)

Bluebell Walk (Apr 2022)

Bluebell Walk (Apr 2024)

Bluebell Walk (Apr 2025)