Edwinstowe, River Maun and Sherwood Forest, 18th December 2022

 


In better than expected weather, Elaine's 7.5 mile walk started at the RSPB car park and took ten of us south through Edwinstowe and along the River Maun before turning north into Sherwood Forest and up to Budby Heath for lunch.  After stopping for a group photo at the Major Oak, we reached the Visitor Centre just before the promised heavy rain arrived.


The end of the Robin Hood Way at Saint Mary's Church, Edwinstowe

Robin and Maid Marian in Edwinstowe

The Duke of Portland's Flood Meadows near the river

Recently diverted bridleway to avoid a collapsed bank of the River Maun

River Maun, part of the Rainworth Water and Rivers Meden, Poulter, Idle, and Ryton catchment which together drain about a third of Nottinghamshire into the Trent at West Stockwith

Archway House in Summer 2016 and Winter 2022, built by the Duke of Portland in 1842



Coffee stop at the edge of the forest
The iron cross with the inscribed stone was placed here by the Duke of Portland in 1912 and marks the location of a ruined chapel or shrine and is dedicated to the dark-age King of Northumbria, Edwin, who was killed at the Battle of Hatfield in 632 AD

The Centre Tree, reputed to mark the centre of the old forest which spread from Nottingham to Worksop

Sherwood Forest has some of the oldest oak and silver birch trees in England, some dead!

Budby Heath, historic heathland wilderness, once part of an ancient hunting forest but now a quite different landscape

Lunch taken overlooking Budby Heath

Returning to the Forest on excellent tracks



Group at the Major Oak

Robin Hood fights Little John at the Visitor Centre

Relocated Robin Hood, originally at the old Visitor Centre