Walk 6. Lady Hill and Foggieton Woods

Walk 6. Lady Hill and Foggieton Woods

Summary

A pleasant woodland walk on made-up, well-surfaced paths through Lady Hill and Foggieton Woods, starting from Cults Primary School and returning to the same point. The walk is signposted with yellow way markers for the first part and then, beyond Ladyhill Road, the route joins a Forestry Commission path network which is waymarked with posts. You can shorten the walk by turning back before you reach Ladyhill Road and perhaps exploring some of the many other paths that run through these woods closer to the starting point, or extend the return route by joining Walk 4, Quarry Wood.

 You can join beside Cults Primary School or  the gateway at the junction of Cairnlee Road East and Earlswells Road. Please  observe all carparking restrictions around the school. There is a car park at side of the road on the road to Hillview Church and at the Church itself. The walk can be joined at any of these points (link path  from the Church a bit rocky for the for the first few yards).

Walk Details

  • Grade: Easy
  • Terrain: Well surfaced paths.
  • Gradients: Easy.
  • Distance: 3 miles; 5 km.
  • Allow: 1½ hours
  • Waymarked: Yes - Orange.
  • GPX: Yes.

Directions

Cults Primary School to Ladyhill Road

 Starting from the gateway at the junction of Cairnlee Road East and

Earlswells Road, walk a very short distance along the path to a junction, turn left and then left again at an open space. Follow the path, which undulates initially as it runs through the open space, and continue through the trees alongside the school perimeter road, then alongside the driveway to Hillview Community Church. When you reach a green wire fence, where the path turns right follow the path beside the fence. The path then bears right slightly as it leaves the fence and after passing a gap with a fence post, you reach   an avenue with tall trees on both sides. Go straight on at the first junction which is just beyond the fence post, then turn left at the next junction and follow a line of telegraph poles. After a short distance, the path bears to the right to go towards Ladyhill Road.

Ladyhill Road to Forestry Commission car park

Cross Ladyhill Road with care and continue a short way on the path on the other side before bearing left which soon leads to a well-surfaced path with wooden way marker posts, which is part of a Forestry Commission path network *. Turn left on to this path and follow the red-topped way marker posts, first crossing an open area, then through mature woodland, then turning left at a junction in young birch woods, just before a small wooden bridge. Keep following the red marked posts until you reach the Forestry Commission car park, where there are information boards including a map of the various way-marked paths.

Return Route

You can use the map on the information board to select your return route: you can either continue to follow the red marker posts on the “Ladyhill Trail”, through the car park and round on a loop path through mature woodland, or you can follow the “Warblers’ Trail”, a short way along from the information board, where the path forks, to make a direct return through the birch woods. Either of these routes will return you to the point * where you originally joined the Forestry Commission path network and where you take the rough path back to re-cross Ladyhill Road. You return on the path you followed on the outward route, remembering to turn right from the path alongside the telegraph poles on to the wide path through the avenue of trees. An alternative is to join Walk 4 Quarry Wood.