Short Walks in Richmond Park 4. Roehampton Gate Roehampton Gate Garden - 50 m - Turn left away from * * the gates on the path Ash tree Distance and terrain: 2,100m (1¼ miles). Easy walk with slight gradients and some uneven ground. We recommend you * towards the car park. * Wych elm (P1) This is one of a series of self-guided, short, nature walks from Park gates. take a tree ID book/app More willows on * Beverley Brook (P4) For longer self-guided walks, try our Walks with Remarkable Trees: www.frp.org.uk/tree-walks/ Cross the road and pass between two when walking this route. small copses on the other side. Walk to * some fenced trees and then fork right towards three small trees with cones on. The walk starts with a large ash tree just beyond the small Roehampton Gate garden. P1 * Ashes can carry male or female flowers or occasionally both – this one is female. * * Fenced veteran oaks * Cross the road, Three alder trees (P2) A little further on is a wych elm (P1) with toothed slightly asymmetrical leaves, which turn right and go * Turn left towards the brook and then has withstood the threat of Dutch Elm Disease. back to the start. * walk to the road bridge 350m away. Fantastic crack willows along Beverley Brook Over the road is an example of some fencing around Blasted oak (see text) * Turn right when you get to veteran oak trees. The fencing (partly funded by the road, cross the bridge Friends of Richmond Park) protects the public from and (counting from the right) Many of Keep right over the take the second main path the danger of falling branches and protects the tree the English oaks in bridge at the bottom up the slope. the Park have yellow of the slope, then from soil compaction around the roots. Along Beverley disks attached to their turn left alongside * trunks. These show that Beverley Brook towards contributors. OpenStreetMap Map with kind permission from Brook, there are some crack willows, weeping willows oak processionary moth the road bridge. • Wych elm © Eric Baldauf nests have been * and alders (P2). All these trees love the damp found. * conditions found along the brook, which is named after the Saxon term for beaver stream. Weeping willow * The land to either side is acid grassland and home P2 The main wood along this walk is White Lodge Plantation, planted in the 1870s. Here there are to ground-nesting skylarks Bone Copse - Turn right for 15m in the spring and summer containing trees plenty of oaks. An especially notable veteran (P3) can be found just outside this wood, just as you and then turn left • Alder cones and leaves * in memory of down the hill, passing a family of © Eric Baldauf start your return to the gate. This mighty specimen is over 500 years old and harbours hundreds just to the right of that name a wide, old tree. • Massive old English Oak © Paula Redmond • Willows along Beverley Brook of different beetles, lichens, birds, bats Ancient sweet chestnut © Christopher Hedley - note the way the bark and other species. There are over 1,300 spirals round the trunk * Fork right up slope after large oak on right. * veteran trees in the Park. Move back to White Lodge the path by Continue slightly to the left up the * Plantation the oak, turn * slope on right hand side of grass. (planted 1870s) As you come down the slope after this left down this oak, you walk through the rare acid grass- path for 50m. * Once in the wood keep straight on, crossing over * one path and then turning right at the next until land that the Park has so much of. This * * you see a large veteran oak to your left. grassland provides ground nesting places Marvel at the size, nooks, crevices, shapes and colours of this wondrous veteran oak (P3) for the wonderful skylark, whose song en- These walks have been devised and written by Christopher Hedley livens a summer walk. The blasted oak and designed by Ken Ewards of the Friends of Richmond Park. towards the end of the walk is an With thanks to Simon Richards, example of a tree that has probably been Manager of Richmond Park, struck and killed by a lightning strike. www.frp.org.uk for the original idea. www.royalparks.org.uk P3 P4 Charity number 1133201 Charity number 1172042 .