Windsor Great Park stretches for over five miles from the castle in the north to Virginia Water in the south and is larger than all of London's Royal Parks put together. I walked it from one end to the other, dodging the private bits in the middle, and made the most of the sheer variety of the landscape. Admittedly a grey winter's day isn't the best time to visit but I was last here in high summer and fancied a contrast, plus the landowner's changed since, and it's always worth a wander.
A walk up Windsor Great Park
Virginia Water is a large artificial lake dating back to Georgian times, indeed so large that to walk round the edge takes an hour and a half. I gave the full circuit a miss because I had other places to be but made up for it by hiking all the way from the station of the same name. The car park abuts a classy timber visitor centre paid for out of Crown Estate coffers, which offers two ways to buy bacon rolls, one way to buy gifts and a suitably eco set of toilets. As I set off up the first path I was struck by the sheer density of visitors with dogs, indeed I have never before walked amid such a blanket proportion of dog owners. I did think I'd spotted one group of friends who'd come without but no, on closer inspection one of them had in fact tucked her pooch underneath her arm. The doggy hordes were having a fine time sniffing the grass and each other, which was great because none of them were interested in sniffing me.
This totem pole was a centenary gift from British Columbia and must be at least three times taller than I've shown you in the photo. A colourful stack of carved heads stares up the nearest wooded slope, and this was delightfully quiet because it's protected by a sign saying "All Dogs Must Be Kept On A Lead" so all the canine exercisers headed off a different way. This marks the edge of the Valley Gardens, a sprawling verdant landscape gifted to the nation by the Queen to brighten the austerity of the 1950s. The trees here include magnificent pines and redwoods, while sandy paths weave between cultivated beds and the land occasionally drops away with a vista over the lake. At present the occasional camellia has burst forth but the rhododendrons are at the "not quite revealing what colour they're going to be" stage. The best midwinter burst has to be in the Heather Garden where you can meet lots of charmers called Erica.
Up top is Smith's Lawn, the largest polo field in Europe where horsey folk with balance and money meet to bash mallets and chase chukkas. But the first match of the season isn't until the week after Easter so for now the grass is in hibernation, the enclosures are empty and the grandstands await corduroy bums on seats. Set off up the Rhododendron Ride and you'll soon reach Obelisk Pond, a swoosh of water bordered by a mix of lawn and adventure playground. The stone pillar with a metal sun on top commemorates the Duke of Cumberland, or at least it does now because Queen Victoria got woke and decided commemorating the Battle of Culloden wasn't PC. If you've noticed the sudden burst of small kids, grandparents and extended families milling about that's because we've almost reached the other big car park beside the Savill Garden.
This is the park's horticultural highlight, a triangular enclosure of formal beds, rustic copses and seasonal displays, so very much the place to go for a slow inspirational potter. It does however cost to get in and February's not the best month so I gave it a miss, plus I still remember how good it looked in August 1988. Since then a sustainable visitor centre has been added - long and low with an undulating timber roof - providing space for a semi-smart restaurant and a gift shop stocked with quality natural products. Perhaps grab a WGP tote bag or some smelly candles or a book about trees or any number of plants for your patio. Also check the chiller cabinet just inside the door where you should find packs of venison burgers and venison sausages, very-locally sourced, and yes they are dear.
A lot of the middle of the park is private so that royal-approved people can do royal-approved things, so proceeding north requires sticking to royal-approved paths. I weaved my way up a hedged track, turned off into the woods and tracked down Cow Pond, a long ornamental lake added to the park in the early 18th century. Highlights of my walk round its perimeter included a) crossing a diamond lattice bridge b) meeting a preening cormorant c) straying very briefly into Berkshire. What I didn't get to see was the extraordinary display of water lilies the pond is famous for in the summer, only a few submerged pads, neither did I realise that neighbouring Chapel Wood is renowned for the whiff of witch hazel at this time of year. This is why you should read websites before you visit somewhere and not afterwards.
Eventually the trees thin out and you enter the emptier northern half of the park. A lot of this is given over to deer (because Windsor Great Park condensed out of royal hunting grounds in medieval times), although with this amount of space to roam they're quite elusive. I did spot a few on the upper slopes, and I also spotted other local species including 'two jodhpured women out for a gallop' and 'man in green wellies walking a labrador'. All paths lead to Snow Hill, the highest point in the park although it's barely a strenuous ascent. Here we find King George III, or at least a big statue of him erected by his son in the place that he loved. The foot of his Copper Horse is about the only place round here you can sit down because WGP doesn't believe in providing benches. And it's also the marker at one end of The Long Walk, a perfectly straight line between here and Windsor Castle.
It's hard to tell initially quite how far away the castle is, although once you start walking it doesn't seem to get much closer. The tarmac stretches off between two lines of trees, not Charles II's original elms but planes and horse chestnuts added in the 1930s and 1940s, so now all of relatively uniform size. It all gets quite homogenous after a while so you make the most of any small variations along the way - a culverted stream, a gatekeeper's lodge - and then focus back to plodding between the double avenue of trees. Expect to pass a greater proportion of the population of Windsor out for a stroll as you progress, plus screaming planes flying into or out of Heathrow as they pass directly overhead. Eventually you have to cross the A308, which breaks the spell, and then it's the final semi-interminable stretch right up to the castle gates. Fifty minutes that took, because the Long Walk is indeed long.
What you choose to do in Windsor is your choice and will likely include refreshment, although obviously what I did is a) go back to the townhouse where I used to live b) revisit the jewellers that sold me my watch 30 years ago this week, and c) bump into two of the party guests from BestMate's 50th. For a truly varied day out, Windsor Great Park totally delivers.
