Length: 5.2 km/3.2 mi
Ascent/Descent: 127m
Net Walking Time: ca. 1 ½ hours
Meet outside Abbey Wood Station at 18.30. For that, take...
Either Crossrail (Paddington 17.56, (...),
L'pool Street 18.06, (...), Canary Wharf 18.13…
Or the 17.52 train from Cannon Street (London
Bridge 17.57, Deptford 18.03, Greenwich for DLR 18.06, Woolwich
Arsenal for DLR 18.20).
Both trains arrive at 18.26. Meet upstairs outside
the gateline. 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; food to 22.00).
For walk directions, maps, height profiles, photos
and gpx/kml files click here . T=short.43
1 comment:
N=9 on this walk, including one newcomer to the group, who we hope enjoyed the experience. A w=lovely-sunny-evening, with golden light to begin with and then the setting sun slanting through the trees.
We were ably led by the walk poster and author, who pointed out all the places of interest. This perhaps meant we did not give enough attention to the written directions or GPX (full disclosure: I came equipped with neither), but maybe another time….
Daffodils were over for the year, but wood anemones were still out in profusion in the woods: getting a little sleepy and starting to close up for the night, but still impressive. There was an occasional fuzz of bluebells. Special birdsong credit goes to blue tits, of which there were quite a few, but there is a terrible lack of blackbird and song thrush song this year. It is becoming a crisis. (I just thought you ought to know…)
Five stayed on for post walk “refreshies”. We chose the Abbey Arms where it turned out to be bingo night. The caller was a drag queen with excellent dress sense but an unnecessarily loud voice, given that it was already well boosted by the amplification. But it was a cultural experience. Two had pizzas and all had slightly more beer than was strictly necessary, before getting trains home just after 9pm.
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