Broadmoor Farm and Crowthorne Wood

This lovely walk is quite varied, includes attractive tree planted heathland, interesting ponds with a short urban section and starts and finishes at a lovely open space.

1. Exit the car park, turn right and follow the lane up the incline turning left before the gates into Eastern Road. This pleasant lane has some temporary workings on the right hand side but on the left are open fallow fields with Broadmoor hospital in the distance. These fields hold butterflies in the summer and birdlife will always be apparent including stonechats. Continue straight on with the houses on your left. Follow the path through the temporary fencing and down the steps to the road.
2. Cross straight over through the footpath gate and continue on the left-hand path. The path is lined with rhododendrons and on the right a fenced occasional fishing lake is full of lilies. Continue up through the chestnut trees. On the same path you will then go through a younger pine plantation until you meet a major track in front of you, part of The Devil's Highway.
3. Cross directly over here. Left at the top of the short hill and when you reach a main junction go to the path opposite, don’t turn right or left. This path runs parallel to the A3095 Sandhurst to Bracknell Road but you will soon leave it, angling left when the fence on your left ends. In autumn look for all the fungi, including lots of the beautiful, but poisonous fly agaric. Listen carefully, there are birds calling everywhere. Bear left onto a wider track to a big path junction.
4. Turn right onto the wide path with small trees either side. You will find heather all along this path. This would be prime heathland without the trees. Follow this to the next major track crossroads.
5. Turn left, you will pass a boggy area with a pond on the left-hand side. This looks good for dragonflies in the summer months. There are patches of bilberry along the path edges. Listen for goldcrests, coal tits and look for birds of prey in and around the tall pines. You may be lucky to see some crossbills. Jays are also found here. At the major track junction, called Round Hill, take the second track on the left-hand side. Another pond appears on your left. The ponds here are far too acidic to appeal to many water birds. Keep going past another pond into taller woodland. Continue past a minor crossroads until the wide Devil's Highway crosses your path again.
6. Turn right then immediately left along the public footpath. Go up the hill and join the tarmac path. Continue on this between the railings and join the roadside path in front of you, keeping in the same direction. Broadmoor Hospital is on your left. Keep left but to the right of the enormous wall and follow Chaplains Hill. At the road junction turn left into School Hill continuing to the bottom.
7. With the school in front of you, turn right past the house on the left and turn left through a gate in the hedgerow and turn left down the track. (This is not strictly a public right-of-way but it is widely used by many people and the residents have indicated in the past that its use for walking is perfectly acceptable). At the sign for Pinehill Road continue along the track to the left of the houses and you will meet a gate. Enter Wildmoor Heath.
8. Turn left across the wooden bridge before you reach the next gate. Nuthatches are very noisy along this path. You will reach a stile.
9. Cross the stile continuing in a straight line until you meet an opening where is a gate and fence on your right ignore the metal gate a little way in front of you.  Turn left here. This tarmac path runs alongside the Broadmoor Farm SANGS (Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space - public amenity land for new housing). Continue keeping right until you meet Lower Broadmoor Road.
10. Enter the gate on your right. To your left you now see your car but I recommend walking around Broadmoor Fram Meadows before you finish your walk. Follow a rough path in the grass to the top of the small hill. There is a shady bench seat here and some nice views from different corners of the surrounding countryside and Broadmoor Hospital. Behind the bench seat is a small path that leads down the hill. Keep left and join the path next to the fence.
11. Turn left. Stonechats enjoy the marshy ground on your left and with many other birds will feed on the bramble at the foot of the hill and seeds from the wet meadow. Follow this path until it splits, keep left and go through the hole in the hedgerow which is actually a bridge over a small stream.
12. Cross the field to another bench and follow the path up behind it up the hill of fine old Scots pine trees to the top. This path meanders through the trees. Follow the edged path and it meanders down to the field again, keep right back to the bench. Cross back over the field to the bridge and turn immediately right. Follow the line of the stream and then the fence back to the car park.

A lovely walk I hope you will enjoy  it as much as I did.