Swynnerton Old Park Walk with Kids – Family-Friendly Woodland Trail in Staffordshire

The first few days of our annual leave have been a real treat! On day 1, we headed out to explore Bishop’s Wood in Staffordshire, and on day 3 my husband suggested another walk he’d found on All Trails: Swynnerton!

Swynnerton Old Park

Much like Bishop’s Wood, Swynnerton Old Park is another Forestry Commission owned forest, around 329 hectares in size! My husband had been here mountain biking with a friend only a couple of weeks before, and he’d mentioned the walking opportunities and that we should definitely get down there one day – fortunately our “one day’s” are actually taking place now!

The Walk!

After parking up, the first short section was across a rather wide, gravelled walkway, but we soon diverted off this main walkway to the right, into what was a very leafy walkway. Unlike Bishop’s Wood though, brambles and nettles were mostly very limited, and although we had to brush our way past the vegetation, it wasn’t anywhere near as crazy as that last walk!

The first couple of miles saw us walking through the woodland, surrounded by these beautiful and really tall trees. The boys found some suitably sized branches and used them as trekking poles – which turned out to be incredibly useful at some of the hillier parts!

Further on up the pathway we hit the perimeter of the woodland, and we found ourselves walking through the forest edge, with open countryside to our left. You could see some lovely views, and you could also hear the trains. It was around 4pm by this point, and being a week day, they were coming through thick and fast! At one point, we even managed to spot one!

Up until now, the walk had been mostly flat – sure, there were some ups and downs, but not massively noticeable. From this point on, it was noticeably hillier with some steep inclines (and declines!)

The final section of the walk, before returning to the main walkway, was mostly flat, and ran along a lane, as we could hear some horses trotting along beside us. We were back into the more dense woodland and surrounded by lush greenery and beautiful birdsong. We had only encountered a half dozen people on this walk at tops, so it had been a really peaceful walk, though I bet it’s less so on really warm and sunny days and weekends!

Before joing the final walkway we had a hugely steep hill to climb – I think we did a wrong turn and walked up one of the bike trails, as the terrain was smooth and curvy and there were some obvious jumps! At the top we stopped to catch our breath and grab a drink – we were so disappointed to spot this! Litter everywhere! I just can’t fathom the mentality of people who come out to a beautiful place and spoil it! And this was just one area 😦

Family Feedback: Swynnerton Old Park

This was another Forestry Commission walk that we all thoroughly enjoyed! Talking with the rest of the family, it appears that we all really love the magic of walking through woodland, so this was a real hit for all of us. The walkways for about 95% of the walk that we did were all easy to get through. There were some that were overgrown with ferns, and there were small sections (mostly at the beginning) that were overgrown with nettles and some brambles, but nothing like our walk to Bishop’s Wood, thankfully! It was just so beautiful, and other than the distant trains, the only real noises were the birds (OK, and us!)

We wouldn’t recommend this walk for anyone with a baby who uses a pram – the main walkway yes, but this particular route, no! I always used a sling with mine as babies so I wasn’t restricted, and we did actually pass a Mum with a baby in a carrier, so if you are wanting to get out on this walk and have a baby, that would be the way to go! Our boys are 8 and 10, and they didn’t find this walk a struggle – it was mostly flat, and with plenty of distractions to keep them entertained as we walked along (trainspotting being one!) there wasn’t time to think about being tired! As always, we had a couple of snacks and a big bottle of water to keep us going, and found lots of nice little areas to sit and re-hydrate or snack (it was incredibly muggy, so we all needed these breaks to cool off a bit!)

Would we come back? This is definitely one on our return list. I’d imagine this would get busy on weekends and sunny days, but if were at a loose end on a weekday day off, this would be one to visit again! We have also earmarked this is a place to come once I’ve sorted myself a van and we can get bikes to places – after seeing the bike trails and jumps, the boys are very excited!

TOTAL MILES: 4.71 | TOTAL TIME: 2:22 Hours (2:00 Moving Time)