Three Forests Way

Hainault Forest

This winter I completed a 60 (95km) mile circular walk called the Three Forests Way, linking the ancient Essex forests of Epping, Hainault and Hatfield. This walk was devised by ramblers in 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The official start point is Harlow in the west of Essex. The route then follows the River Stort north to Hatfield Forest and then turns south via the Roding Valley and Hainault Forest to Loughton. From here it goes over the high ground north of Epping, and beside the River Stort back to Harlow.

The route isn't waymarked so I had to rely on the guidebook published in 1986, OS Explorer Maps 174, 175, 183, 194 & 195 and my two GPS's. I abandoned the guidebook after failing to identify 'a group of three trees' in Epping Forest. It wasn't too hard to get round as the route was marked on the Explorer maps. Most of the walking was off-road or on quiet lanes, with only one very short section on a busy road. It was surprising how easy it is to walk for a couple of hours without crossing a road or seeing a soul so close to surburbia.

Epping Forest stretches from the Olympic Borough of Newham to the south west borders of Essex. It's been owned and managed by the Corporation of London on behalf of us citizens since 1876. It is very well-used by walkers (with and without dogs), riders (of bikes and horses), model airplane owners and motor cyclists who congregate at the tea hut near High Beach. It's not a place for quiet comtemplative walking as you are never too far from a busy road. Nethertheless you can still get lost in the denser parts of the forest. Epping was a Royal Forest in Tudor times, Queen Elizabeth's hunting lodge is well worth a visit.

Hainault Forest has been a public open space since 1906. The country park part is the London borough of Redbridge, the Woodland Trust manage the part that lies in Essex and the bit in Havering is a public golf course. All three local authority boundaries meet at Cabin Hill, the highest point in Redbridge, 90m/205ft. The country park recently hosted 3,000+ troops in a Snooze Box Hotel, as part of the Olympic security organisation. This is another well-used open space and one that gives excellent views into London. On a clear day, the Shard, the Gherkin, the Telecom Tower and London Eye are all visible.

Hatfield Forest lies just south of Stansted airport. This was also a former Royal forest acquired by the National Trust in 1923. As it lies under the flight path of London's third airport, noise can sometimes be a problem. On the day I visited the cloud was so low the planes weren't visible. It's an excellent place for walking, with two waymarked trails and plenty of trees to get lost in. The large picnic/parking area is popular for family picnics. Wildlife abounds, deer in forest, duck on the lake and cows in the pasture.

Several other long distance routes share parts of the Three Forest Way; section 19 of the London Loop from Hainault to Chigwall; the Centenary Walk in Epping Forest; The Forest Way - waymarked route linked Epping and Hatfield Forests; The Stort Valley Way - a circular path between Epping and Harlow; The Essex Way and St Peter's Way near Ongar. Apart from the forests and fields, there is a very pleasant riverside section by the river Stort from Roydon to Sawbridgeworth.

I started this walk on a mild sunny day in November and finished on a snowy Saturday in January, covering a total of 65 miles (100km) in nine walks. The longest was 11 miles and the shortest was 4 miles. Mostly I used public transport, sometimes combined with the van so all the walks were linear. I experienced the whole gamut of British winter weather; sunny and cold, sunny and mild, light rain, heavy rain, floods, icy winds and snow. It took about 26 hours to complete the walk.

Highlights: nearly missing a herd of fallow deer that passed directly in front of me as I read the map, one large stag with twenty or so does; the beautiful sunny but cold morning spent walking from Roydon to Sawbridgeworth; the polar bear in Hatfield Broad Oak.

Lowlights: the toilets at Harlow bus station; wading knee deep through a flooded field; mud.

Snowy Essex

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