Epping Forest Circular Walk

Nine EFOG members met at Loughton Station on 25th July 2026 for a circular walk in Epping Forest.  After enjoying one of the ‘Lions on the Loose’ Art Trail sculptures currently on offer around Loughton for St Clare Hospice, we joined the forest from The Stubbles, visiting Strawberry Hill Pond where the water level was well down but still had a few ducks on it. 

We made our way through the forest, over the Epping New Road and through to Connaught Waters where we met up with Kathy & Brian for a circular walk around lake.  Louise left us at this stage and went with Kathy & Brian back to Chingford, leaving eight of us to continue the days walk.  We cut through the forest from Connaught Water to join up with Green Ride, taking this path all the way through to cross over at Cross Roads, where due to the heat we unanimously decided to forgo the ‘ups and downs’ and all decided to take the flatter route through the forest to the back of the Epping Forest Field Centre.  When we got there we found four benches set out perfectly for a very nice quite lunch spot before heading over to the Ice Cream van at High Beech for suitable refreshment. 

After dropping into the Visitors Centre, we continued our walk via the Mount Pleasant ride, crossing back over Epping New Road and joining up with the Green ride where at Sandpit Plain we continued down the big hill before cutting into the forest to see the dried up Loughton Brook and the empty Staples Pond/Loughton Reservoir, due to the current drought. We then cut through to Forest Road and the group then made their way back to Loughton Station.  By my step counter the route was  just under 7miles, the weather was lovely if a tad warm, but the forest gave lots of shade in places and it was a joy to be walking and enjoying good company and the forest

Sue S.   26th July 2026