Stevenage Walking Festival: Bluebell Woods & Beane Valley (6mi/10km - Leisurely)

An introductory walk of just over 6 miles, hosted by Stag Walkers as part of Stevenage Walking Festival. The route visits bluebell woods, gently rolling countryside and the village of Walkern.

Starting from St Nicholas Park in the northeast corner of Stevenage, we’ll head through Great Ashby to Brooches Wood, where we’ll hope to see our first bluebells of the day. We’ll pass more woods as we continue through farmland, before coming to an open view of the Beane Valley before us. We’ll descend along a wide track to Walkern, passing an interesting octagonal dovecote, and walk to a ford across the River Beane, one of Hertfordshire’s globally rare chalk streams.

Passing St Mary’s Church (one of the oldest village churches in Hertfordshire), we’ll go along the village lanes back to Walkern High Street and will pause for a snack break or early lunch.

We then leave the village for a gentle ascent out of the valley and walk through the edge of Box Wood, then into Great Ashby District Park. In Box Wood and Claypithills Spring we’ll hope to see more beautiful bluebells before making our way back to our start point.

Dogs are welcome on a lead.

For information about walking with the group, including our dog policy, please visit the Stag Walkers website.

There is no limit on group size for this walk and booking is not essential; however, we do find it helpful to know who's coming, so:

* if you plan to come along, please book a place for yourself and any guests you are bringing

* if you have to cancel please update your RSVP so we know not to wait for you

* you can RSVP via our Meetup group or e-mail stagwalkers at gmail dot com

Unless you opt in to further communications, we will only use contact information you provide to get in touch about the walk.