Oxhey Woods
Through the estate's ancient woods, past the old names on the 1870s maps and the bluebells of Nanscot Wood.
Start: Oxhey Woods car park, Prestwick Road. Route: a loop with 6 stops. Underfoot: Woodland paths, muddy after rain. Take care crossing Prestwick Road and Oxhey Drive.
Google Maps shows every stop in its app or on a computer. In a phone's web browser it can leave stops out, so follow the map on this page or use the GPX file.
The route follows paths and pavements where they exist, and goes straight across open grass where they don't. Paths are drawn from OpenStreetMap, so check the ground as you go.
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Oxhey Woods car park
The start of the one-kilometre easy-access sculpture trail. The woods were declared a Local Nature Reserve on 13 June 1997. Read more →
The start of the Oxhey Woods sculpture trail in 2013, soon after the trail opened. © Robin Webster, Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0) - 2
Beck Mason's Wood
Beck Mason's Wood, in the west of the central woods, keeps its old name and is on Natural England's revised ancient woodland list. Look for old hornbeam stubs along the banks. Read more →
Hornbeam coppice in Oxhey Woods in 2015: many trunks growing from one old stool, the mark of centuries of cutting. © Robin Webster, Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0) - 3
The Plantation
The northern woods keep names from the maps of the 1870s: The Plantation, Old Hangings, Young Hangings and Little Furze Field. Read more →
Oxhey Woods on the 1896 map, with the old names Old Hangings, Young Hangings, The Plantation and Beck Mason's Wood. 25-inch map, revised 1896. Ordnance Survey, reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland (CC BY 4.0) - 4
Old Hangings
In 1889 H. J. Foley walked a quiet gravel road through these woods, the line of today's Oxhey Drive, among oaks, hornbeam, birch, larch and rhododendron. Read more →
Rhododendron Walk in Oxhey Woods in 2006. The council thinks the rhododendron goes back to Victorian planting. © David Hawgood, Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0) - 5
Abbott's Wood
The southern woods: tall, open oak over younger birch, keeping the name of the Abbot's Wood of the 1872 sale. Read more →
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Nanscot Wood
Hazel coppice under mature oaks, full of bluebells in spring. Head back west through Abbott's Wood to the car park. Read more →
Bluebells in Oxhey Woods in April 2017. © Christine Matthews, Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)