Holt Country Park

About trip

In 1979 North Norfolk District Council bought 104 acres (42ha) of coniferous woodland to provide residents and visitors with an area in which they could enjoy informal countryside recreation. Norfolk County Council fully supported the scheme and has laid out a number of circular trails, one of which you will be following part of the way. The circular trail waymarkers are green and yellow, and are generally well maintained - which can be a blessing when the footpaths can start to disappear under burgeoning vegetation in early summer. While you're there: Holt owes its 18th-century grandeur to a devastating fire in 1708, which destroyed much of its medieval heritage. It is best known for Gresham’s School, founded in 1555 by Thomas Gresham, Lord Mayor of London. North Norfolk Railway steam trains run from Sheringham to Holt, while nearby Letheringsett has a watermill. What to look out for: Most trees in the country park are pines - firs, spruces and larches - but also look for native oak and introduced rhododendrons. When you find the oaks, look for evidence of gall wasps. These insects induce a variety of growths on oaks, which are named according to their shape: marble, artichoke, oak apple and knopper galls. Resident birds include robins and goldcrests. Where to eat and drink: The King’s Head in the centre of nearby Holt serves bar meals. There is also an excellent greengrocer and a supermarket for supplies if you want to enjoy the picnic facility in the country park. In high summer, an ice cream van can be found near the park’s visitor centre. Directions: The walk begins at the country park car park. There are four waymarked walks through the country park itself. Follow the blue route through the pines until you pick up the green and yellow circular walk markers. The route takes you along a footpath that runs parallel to the B1149, but is shielded from it by trees. In this part of the forest you can expect to see Corsican and Scots pine, which you can tell apart by the fact that the needles on the Corsican pine have a twist and are much longer than those of the Scots. The path crosses a stile and leads downhill until you leave the forest and enter a meadow. Bear left, following the path, and cross a river into another meadow with woods to the right. Continue with the river to your left, then follow the footpath sharp right to climb a hill. You emerge on to a farm track. This ultimately leads to a barn, just past which you jig left, then right, and continue walking east along a field-edge path known as the Holt-Mannington Walk. Go right at the end of a field and then turn left after a few paces until you reach a holly bush. Cross the stile, which takes you through the hedge. The path then leads through the centre of a field and is easy to follow. The track ends in a T-junction at Church Farm (as you walk past, look into its manicured garden to admire the ornamental bridge). Turn left along the paved lane, and then go left when you see All Saints’ Church, which has a thatched apsidal end. The footpath is marked ‘Holt Circular Path’. Enter a scrubby meadow that can be full of nettles and thistles that make walking in shorts a tentative business. The path meanders, and the only way to make sure you are going in the right direction is to look for the markers. Eventually you cross a tiny wooden footbridge and meet a paved lane. Following this lane to the left will take you to Hempstead Hall, which has won prizes for farming in an environmentally sensitive manner. As you pass through the farmyard, with its densely populated duck pond, look for a stile on your right. Cross the stile and walk through a neat meadow inhabited by walker-friendly donkeys and ponies. After the meadow, bear right up a grassy hill and then left by the oak tree at the top. At the end of this farm track you meet a lane where you turn left. The lane enters a wooded area, crosses the River Glaven and climbs a hill. When you reach the summit, start looking for the footpath sign on your left. When you reach it, turn into the wood and follow the green and yellow circular trail markers along the forest trail that runs parallel to the road. Turn left on to the track into the car park (but not the one you are parked in) and follow the path leading from the far end. Take the path branching right, just past a litter bin. Where the path forks, go right, looking for the gate and circular walk markers.