Family Walk in Bishop’s Wood, Staffordshire – A Wild & Overgrown Woodland Adventure

Bishops Wood circular walk revisited

Saturday 31st August 2024. Not so long ago we headed into Bishop’s Wood, Staffordshire, for our first walk using my husband’s newly downloaded All Trails app. We were all very excited. Alas, several unexpected issues stopped us from completing the circular walk, (which you can read about here), and although we still managed a respectable 5.6 miles, we were all eager to get back and complete the intended route!

A Great Start

The boys had asked several times if they could go back to Bishop’s Wood. Today we decided would be the day. Upon arriving, we found a new sign had been put up. The sign gave some good insight into the woods and things to look out for.

We headed down the path we took last time, and had an easy wander down to the ‘cow field’, which we were delighted to see was cow-free today! At this point, we had considered the success of completing this walk to be based solely on whether there would be cows in this field…how silly we were!

We climbed the gate and walked up the field that we’d been unable to walk through last time. Interestingly, I think we made the right call last time, as the footpath headed directly through the field that the cows were in. We continued through the field which lead back to the woods, and celebrated with a quick lunch once we were safely over the stile.

Things got Spikey

Our spirits were high as we continued on the circular route through this beautiful woodland. Woodland walks always feel really magical, as well as being really beautiful and full of things to talk about and look at. On our last visit here you may recall me mentioning the Red Wood Ants we’d seen, and this time was no different – every few metres was another colony marching across the footpaths. We stopped to look around to see if there was an obvious nest nearby, and sure enough, our eagle eyes spotted one.

Once we’d got an idea on what to look for, we stopped and looked for nests a couple more times and each time we found them – we’re becoming skilled insect experts now 😁

At one point we went up a fairly steep path – before coming back down the other side. On an otherwise flat walk, we found this quite fun – not least because the boys were taking their trekking poles on their first outing and could put them through their paces!

Eventually though, the pathways got narrower and narrower, and once again we found ourselves battling the plant life to get through the footpaths. Clearly no one walks these very much, which was a shame, as we saw several interesting artifacts along the way that no one will get to enjoy if these become fully overgrown!

This part of the walk was extremely tiring as we battled our way through, and I won’t lie, it was dampening our spirits a bit by now too. We had really hoped that it would be a nice easy walk this time, especially as we were following the correct route. At least this time we had our trekking poles which turned out to be fantastic help as we struggled our way through.

Thank Goodness That’s Over!

Eventually, the last overgrown footpath lead onto the gravelled walkway that we’d ended up on before, and it was a relief to walk freely without spiky vegetation trying to grab hold of you at every step! We brushed ourselves down of the spiders, aphids and even some wood ants that had all hitched a ride on us, had a quick snack and drink, then continued onward.

This part of the walk restored our faith in walking these woods and we had an enjoyable wander back. Other than noticing that a few trees had fallen since our last visit, and that the ants weren’t to be found in this section of woodland, the remaining part of the  walk was, thankfully, uneventful. The boys had an enjoyable five minutes break on the tyre swing again, and then we headed back to the car. We were all ready for some tea!

Family Feedback on the Bishop’s Wood Circular Walk

I won’t sugar coat it, we were all shattered from fighting the brambles, and at one point we were all pretty fed up with the walk. I think the disappointment here laid in the fact that we’d all thought that by keeping to the route properly this time, we’d actually have a decent, bramble-free, walk. How wrong we were! Despite how tired I felt, and how much my soles ached from stamping down brambles, I still enjoyed the walk. It’s just such an incredibly beautiful place to be in, but I would not recommend this particular route unless you planned to do it during winter, or late autumn/early spring at the outside. We certainly won’t be doing this walk again unless it’s winter and we’re certain the most unforgiving plants are dead!

That said, there are some (albeit much shorter) routes that are wider and gravelled, frequented by dog walkers, and would be easily passable whatever time of year it is. Some of these are bridleways, and some would probably even be suitable for a pram too, or a push bike. If you follow these, you could enjoy these beautiful woods at any time of year, and with every member of the family.

TOTAL MILES: 6.5 | TOTAL TIME: 4h08 (2h58 Moving Time)

We only stopped a couple of times for food, perhaps 20 minutes max, so you can see how much time we spent battling brambles!