Knowesgate to Elsdon – 23 November 2024
If you go down to the woods today you’re in for a big surprise. That’s mainly because the woods are slowly being cut down with large areas cleared of all trees. And we are walking through the woods on the routes this week. The woods we are walking in comprise part of Harwood Forest on the north side of the A696 road and some smaller areas of woodland on the south side of the road.
Two of the routes start at Knowesgate and head north towards Catcherside Farm. These two routes are the 9.5 and 10.5-mile routes. After Catcherside the two routes split with the 9.5-mile route going east and then north through the village of Harwood before turning west towards Elsdon. After Catcherside the 10.5-mile route goes west and then north and finally turns west again to Elsdon. Both routes pass through sections of Harwood Forest but a lot of it is now open woodland so it is a lot different than it was some years ago.
The third route is the 11-mile route which starts just north of Knowesgate and goes west almost to the village of West Woodburn before turning north and goes across the A696 road before continuing north to Elsdon. This route also passes through two sections of woodland but again much of it has been cut down.
The last time we visited Elsdon was way back in 2006 and there was almost certainly much more woodland around then but it is that long ago it will be hard to remember what it looked like back then. So if you fancy taking a trip down memory lane or just coming to look at what Harwood Forest has become then you can get in touch with us from our Contact Page. You can also download the walk descriptions below and the GPS routes here.
As we do not have any images for the Elsdon walk in 2006 the image for this post was taken on the last walk when we finished in Catton. This image was taken as one of the routes passed Lambley Dam.
