Wonderful Woolpit walk

Route of the Woolpit walk (Image: Archant)

A typical Suffolk landscape walk using tracks and paths through agricultural land and passing farms, taking in the picturesque hamlet of Clopton Green. There is a steep bank to climb, which can get slippery after rain.

To start the walk, leave the car park from the way you entered it, cross the road and turn right along a pavement. Passing a telephone box on your left, go straight over a crossroads, on Old Stowmarket Road. At a footpath sign on your right, by a sign saying “Brick Works Swan Lane”, turn right. When the road swings left, carry straight on, to the right of a gate, soon having a footpath sign to your left. Turn right at another footpath sign and after a few paces turn left, on a green path with a field to your left.

You will then come out onto a road. Cross this and turn left along a pavement. At a road on your right, cross the road you are walking on, having Monkey Puzzle House to your left, and turn right on a cycle lane/footpath. This path will take you back onto the road. Turn left and carry on in the same direction.

After the last house on your right, turn right by a footpath sign. Stick to the path as it swings right by a footpath sign, now having a ditch to your right. You will come to a footpath sign in front of you: turn left here, still walking on a green path with a ditch and a hedge to your right.

Ignore two footpath signs on your right and continue in the same direction, but at a third footpath sign turn right, walking on a hard-surface track, soon having Christmas-type trees to your right. At a crossroads of tracks, turn right, still walking on a hard-surface track, having a ditch to your left. You are now walking in the hamlet of Clopton Green. Keep to this track as it takes you onto a road. Turn left here, soon having a farm to your right; then the road will swing sharply to the right.

The road will then swing to the left. Carry straight on, walking on a track with a ditch and a hedge to your left. At the field boundary to your right, turn left, walking between trees and up a slight bank. Turn right and you will soon see a footpath sign to your right. Turn right, walking on a path with a hedge to your right. You will soon come to a footpath sign on your right; just carry straight on in the same direction, soon having a ditch and a hedge to your right. When the hedge stops, carry straight on in the same direction, now walking on a path across open fields.

When you come to another footpath sign, carry on in the same direction. Just before the track goes over a bridge, turn left by a footpath sign, keeping a stream to your right. You will then come to a steep bank in front of you. Climb this and, once you are up the top, turn right, walking on a path with a stream to your right. This track will take you out onto a road; turn left here and you will come to a road turning to your left.

Turn left here and you will see a footpath sign in front of you. Turn left up a slight bank and then right, walking on a path with a field to your left. When you come to the field boundary, turn right across a plank bridge by a footpath sign and then turn left, walking on a road. Turn right at a footpath sign on your right. Follow the path as it swings to the right and the left. Go through a gap in the hedge in front of you and turn right. When you come to the field boundary on your left, carry straight on, with a footpath sign to your left and a ditch to your right. Cross a plank bridge by a footpath sign and go diagonally left across the field facing you on (at the time of walking) a well-defined path. Once across the field, carry straight on, with a field to your left and a ditch and a hedge to your right. You will then come to a T-junction of footpaths by a footpath sign. Turn left here, walking between trees.

You will come to a gap in the hedge to your right; turn right here (unsigned) and you will be faced by a large field. Look across the field and aim for a signpost in the distance. The path will take you out onto a road. Turn right here for a few paces and then turn left by a footpath sign, walking between trees. Stick to this path till it takes you out onto a road. Turn left and then right. When you come to a T-junction of roads, turn right, walking on a pavement which will quickly take you back to the car park on the right from where you started.