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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Wednesday 10 April 2024

Evening Walk - Lesnes Abbey Woods: bluebells, wood anemones, crocuses, native wild daffodils (and some abbey ruins) - Abbey Wood Circular

Length: 5.2 km/3.2 mi
Ascent/Descent: 127m
Net Walking Time: ca. 1 ½ hours
Toughness: 1 out of 10 
 
Meet outside Abbey Wood Station at 18.30
For that, take... 
Either Crossrail (Paddington 17.55, (...), L'pool Street 18.06, (...), Canary Wharf 18.13… 
Or the 17.54 train from Cannon Street (London Bridge 17.58, Deptford 18.04, Greenwich for DLR 18.07, Woolwich Arsenal for DLR 18.20). Abbey Wood is in Zone 4. 
Return trains: frequent (Mainline and Crossrail).
 
This is an undulating route on the boundary of the Boroughs of Bexley (Lesnes Abbey Woods) and Greenwich (Bostall Woods) in South East London, based upon the atmospheric ruins of Lesnes Abbey, surrounded by a beautiful park with some ornamental gardens and towered over by ancient and secondary woodland, with a high extent of sessile oaks, some large wildflower meadows with bluebells, wood anemones, crocuses and native wild daffodils in spring and several scenic ponds. A heathland with an Iron Age tumulus and some acid grasslands are passed through as well.
 
Refreshments at the end of the walk: Abbey Arms (right by the station, with a large garden at the back).
 
For walk directions, maps, height profiles, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=short.43

1 comment:

Thomas G said...

n=3 out tonight for this in w=dry weather with no mud worth mentioning. All had walked the route before, meaning no stopping at info panels and following memory without consulting text or map, ie: being quick.
Plenty of anemones were still very present in the fenced parts of the woods, but they were already closed for the night. What was dominant therefore was the blue of the bells: Bluebells in good shape and large numbers, carpet-like in places despite only about 2/3 of them being out. Plenty of birdsong could be heard as well, plus some of the squadrons of parakeets that are now ubiqitous in SE London.
We got back to the station just before 20.00 and had a meal at The Abbey Arms.