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Ski holidays
Severe weather
Distance 6.4 miles (10.4km)
Minimum time 3hrs
Ascent/gradient 426ft (130m)
Level of difficulty Medium
Paths Firm forest tracks throughout except one ploughed field
Landscape Mixed woodland, surrounded by undulating farmland
Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorers 224 Corby, Kettering & Wellingborough or 234 Rutland Water
Start/finish SP 978983
Dog friendliness Generally very good, but on lead visiting wildlife site
Parking Forestry Commission car park, Fineshade Wood (off A43)
Public toilets Wakerley Great Wood, 1 mile (1.6km) to west
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© The Automobile Association 2008. © Crown Copyright Licence number 100021153
1 From the car park walk up the lane past the Forestry Commission's offices, and just past what were originally forest workers' houses it becomes a wide and semi-surfaced forest drive. Go out along this popular route.
2 Just before you reach the second of two semi-detached cottages (Nos 2 and 4 Top Lodge), you can detour for a broad gravel track on the left that leads through the trees to a bird hide (free to enter) overlooking an artificial pond and an area of open ground. Continue along the main track through pleasantly open woodland until, just after a mile (1.6km) from the start, you turn right at a crossroads of paths, indicated 'Jurassic Way'.
3 Walk down this wide track through the trees, with a field soon opening up to the left. When the field ends, go straight over a junction of paths into Westhay Wood and, in a few paces, join a main forest track to continue south through the woodland.
4 At the junction at the very far end, where the main track turns abruptly right, go left and walk through a small timber yard to reach Wood Lane. Walk down as far as the old railway bridge.
5 To visit the charming village of King's Cliffe continue to the bottom of the lane, cross over and turn left - the pub and church are at the far end of West Street. Otherwise turn right before the railway cutting for a field-edge footpath. When you reach the border of Westhay Wood continue through the fields alongside the woodland, until in the very far corner the path disappears into the trees.
6 Follow the well-waymarked route (there are even direction arrows attached to some of the trees), which at one point crosses the former railway by the remains of an old footbridge. After following an old fence you eventually emerge into fields. Walk around the right-hand edge, beside the trees, until a clear path cuts across the corner to the woodland on the far side.
7 Continue along the path through the conifers, then turn right on to a wide farm track that drops down via a gate on to the open hillside above Fineshade Abbey (private).
8 Turn right along a fenced path above the buildings and on across tree-covered hillside. Go over a wide and dipping field, then turn right on to the lane at the far side to reach the car park at the top.
The term 'forest' originally meant a loose collection of neighbouring but separate woods, and Rockingham Forest, which once spread from Peterborough to Oxford, still bears that out. However, the few remaining pockets of this ancient forest are now considerably shrunken and isolated in Northamptonshire. Fineshade, Westhay, Wakerley and Fermyn woods are today managed by the Forestry Commission, and the emphasis is very squarely on conservation and responsible recreation. Partly because of that, Rockingham Forest has become one of the key centres for the reintroduction to the Midlands of one of our most majestic birds of prey.
The red kite is a handsome and truly impressive bird, huge in size (a wing span of up to 5ft/1.5m) but incredibly agile. Several centuries ago they were a common sight across the country, even scavenging for left-overs in the centre of London. But long-term persecution led to their eventual extinction in England, and only as recently as the 1990s have they been carefully reintroduced to parts of the Chilterns, Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
The 'Red kites at Rockingham' display at the Forestry Commission's Top Lodge barn at Fineshade, organised in association with the RSPB and English Nature, runs from March until the beginning of September. It includes a CCTV link with a nest in the nearby forest so that you can watch them close-up (depending on whether and where the birds choose to nest, of course!) and there are also guided walks and talks throughout the summer.
The initial indications are that the kites have firmly established themselves, despite several fatalities owing to poisoning. Between 1995 and 1998 as many as 70 red kites were released into the Midlands, and by the year 2000 16 pairs had reared 22 young.
In addition to its numerous country houses and parks, Northamptonshire also has some splendid follies. In that department the county's chief architect was Sir Thomas Tresham, Elizabethan landowner and persecuted Catholic who designed a number of odd buildings that still can't quite be figured out today. Rushton Triangular Lodge, north west of Kettering, is made up of three 33ft (10m) sides, three storeys, three gables on each side, and so on, while Lyveden New Bield, south west of Oundle, is an apparently unfinished building in the shape of a Greek cross sitting isolated amid the fields. Experts have puzzled over Tresham's works for centuries but are no nearer understanding what on earth they mean. A leaflet entitled the Tresham Trail is available from local tourist information centres.
Light refreshments are available at the red kite information centre at Fineshade. For more substantial fare visit the village of King's Cliffe, half-way along the walk. The Cross Keys pub offers quiet courtyard seating and has a daily lunchtime and evening menu. On West Street you'll also find the village bakery, open Monday to Saturday mornings.
Deene Park, a few miles south of Fineshade Wood, is a sumptuous country mansion. It has been owned since 1514 by the Brudenell family, descendants of the Earls of Cardigan. The 7th Earl led the charge of the Light Brigade, and inside the house you can see Crimean War mementoes. Deene Park is open on Easter, May, spring and summer bank holidays, and every Sunday afternoon from June to August.
An Augustinian abbey once stood on the site of the present-day Fineshade Abbey, nestling in a fold of the valley between Fineshade and Wakerley Woods. It was later replaced by a small Georgian mansion, which in 1956 was itself knocked down, with just the original stable block remaining.
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