This is a favourite walk of ours and we hope you enjoy it too.
Park up at the Bishopsgate Car Park. The Fox and Hounds is a lovely pub serving excellent food, but rather than settling down to an afternoon drinking, maybe keep it as a reward for having completed the walk.
From the pub turn left and head for the big gates which lead you into Windsor Great Park.
Walk through the gates and leave the tarmac as soon as possible, heading left down a narrow footpath that runs parallel to the sandy bridleway.
You will soon be amongst trees heading along a track with a ditch to your right. There are a couple of little bridges to ensure your feet stay dry. In autumn the banks of the ditch regularly deliver an abundant display of bright red-and-white spotted Amanita Muscaria (Fly Agaric) mushrooms.
After approximately a quarter mile the path turns left and with woodland to your left and a field to your right take the path to the cow pond.
Either take a walk around the oblong pond over the little Chinese bridge at the far end or walk straight past the pagoda. Either way the real delight of the cow pond is the display of water lllies that cover more than half the surface in high season.
Follow the path down from the corner of the pond. This joins Rhodedendron Drive which leads to Savil Gardens. The Cafe is excellent. Once refreshed carry on toward the big obelisk and turn right. Down the hill and across the ornate bridge. You are now at one end of the truly enormous Smiths Lawn polo ground. A great spot for kite flying on windy days when the horses aren’t about. Keep walking along in the same direction (with Smiths lawn to your left) till you reach a gatehouse and tarmac road. Turn right and head through the gates. Walk along this sweeping drive admiring some lovely trees. The private garden behind fencing to your left is Royal Lodge.
Walk along the path and you will soon reach the pretty gatehouse to your right. Either turn left and through the gates back to where you parked or add a short detour, heading forward, through the metal fence into the deer park where you can walk ten minutes to snow hill for a magnificent view of Windsor’s Long Walk spread below you.
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