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 18.20. For that, take...
Either Crossrail (Paddington 17.50, (...), L'pool Street 18.01, (...), Canary Wharf 18.08.
Or the 17.48 Thameslink train to Rainham (Kent) from London Bridge (originates from Luton, calling Deptford 17.55, Greenwich for DLR 17.57, Woolwich Arsenal for DLR 18.10).
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 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:
The London Bridge train arrived about 10 mins delayed, and just 3 met beyond the gates in rainy weather. Off into the Abbey Grounds. 1 had not been here before, so we took time to study the info panels and the CGIs. In the woods then, loads of daffodils and almost as many wood anenomes, in the large fenced areas set aside for them. There was enough urban glow that we only neeeded headtorches for those info panels and to shine into the undergrowth to study the dense carpets of the flowers.
Mud there was some, but we were mainly on gravel paths, so it wasn't too bad. A 4th walker had been much delayed due to an office bash and reverse-walked the route until bumping into us, so n=4 in total. By now, the rain had subsided, although there was occasional spittle in the air.
More daffs and anenomes on the descent and then there was another rare nature spectacle awaiting us: dozens of frogs and even more rainworms crossing the tarmac path out of the Abbey Grounds. Headtorches certainly came in very handy here, just to avoid stepping on the wee things!
Off to the Abbey Arms for Sourdough Pizza and drinks. It was Open Mic night (despite Ingerland playing and being on the tellie, w/o sound), but sadly none of us were tempted...
w=rainy-start-then-largely-dry
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