Roydon Common Reserve
Roydon Common is a relic of the ancient grazing areas that once covered much of the county and offers a variety of habitats for plants and animals. Most of it is dry heath, where species like heathers thrive on sandy soil. Carr is the wettest habitat, and plants like willow and birch offer shade to mosses and ferns below. Mire is peaty soil that gathers in the valley bottom and is a good place to spot bog asphodel.
While you're there: Just 5 miles (8km) away is Kingâs Lynn with its fascinating architecture, Lynn Museum and Old Gaol House Museum. Sandringham House and country park are located to the north.
What to look out for: You walk past the Hospital of the Holy and Undivided Trinity as you leave Castle Rising. This is open to visitors at certain times and is well worth a look. The building dates from the 17th century, and was originally intended as almshouses for âneedy women of good characterâ. Fallow and roe deer are common in the woods around the walk, and you may glimpse red squirrels.
Where to eat and drink: The Black Horse Inn, Castle Rising, is pleasantly situated near the church and serves good food seven days a week. The Castle Rising Post Office and Tea Room is a lovely place for cake and tea and has a pretty garden.
Directions:
Leave the car park, turn left to walk downhill and go straight ahead at the crossroads, passing cottages built of carrstone. After the road bends left, take the lane to your right between Trinity Hospital and the church. Continue through a set of gates and follow the road around a bend, Onion Corner, named after the aroma of wild garlic in spring. Continue to a bridge with white railings.
Take the path to the right through a grassy meadow, with Babingley River to your left. Cross the A149 to the stile opposite. Follow the path across a meadow, cross another stile, then turn right to emerge on a gravel lane near the entrance to Mill House. Keep straight ahead and stay on this lane, ignoring footpath signs to the right, as it bends left to Mill House Cottage. Take the wide grassy track to the right opposite the cottage, passing a ruined barn.
The track passes through the woods, then crosses a bright orange stream, stained by dissolved iron-rich rocks. Bear left across the open meadow in front of you, heading for the opposite corner. Turn right here and follow the footpath signs along the banks of the Babingley River. Nettles can be a problem, as can boggy ground underfoot. Cross a stile by a wooden footbridge and continue along the river bank then follow the path round to the right and cross another stile before turning left along a wide field-edge track with a stream on the left. Turn right when you reach a paved lane and follow this to the A148.
Turn right at the A148, then walk along the verge on the opposite side until you reach the first lane on your left. Turn left and follow the road uphill to enter Roydon. Turn right at the village sign into Church Lane. The church has a marvellous Romanesque south door. Continue out of the village until Church Lane bends to the right,
Just before the bend take the unmarked public bridleway to your left, a grassy track between two hedges with a sunken feel to it. When you reach the modern bungalow, cross the track and go through the metal gate in front of you. Cross the meadow full of bog-loving plants, go through a second gate and walk beside a factory to enter a rough common of gorse and hawthorn. The path emerges at a crossroads.
Cross the road, go down Chapel Road and take the footpath to your right, opposite Chequers Road. The path threads for a little less than a mile (1.6km) alongside a stream, with Roydon Common off to your right. The woodland is mixed, with mature beech, silver birch, oak and alder. Some open areas are grazed by a number of Shetland ponies.
Go through a gate and turn right past the white timber-clad Railway Gatehouse. Grimston Warren to your left has been planted with conifers, which always thrive well in the light, sandy soil.
Turn right on to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust footpath just after the start of a pine plantation. As you climb there are lovely views to your right across a field of heather marked by scrubby trees. When you reach an orange-brown mud road, turn right leaving the nature reserve and continuing to the main road.
Turn left and walk 150yds (137m) along the verge until you reach a line of Scots pine. Go past these, then take the track immediately to your right. Go through the first gap on your right and you will see the Norfolk County Council public footpath sign. Walk along this path Walk along this path, then cross the A149 and walk down the lane opposite to return to Castle Rising. Turn left up the lane marked towards the castle, then right, to the car park.
Hike
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