Jubilee Grove Trail

The Jubilee Grove Trail is Bolderwood's blue-waymarked woodland loop, about a mile (1.6 km) round from Bolderwood car park on the Ornamental Drive. It goes through the giant Douglas firs of Jubilee Grove to the deer viewing platform, drops to a small stream and climbs back up. It's the middle one of the three Bolderwood walks, and the one I'd pick if you want more than the deer platform without committing to a proper hike. Allow 30 to 45 minutes.

Start at the top end of the car park by the information point and picnic tables, go through the small gate and follow the posts with a blue ring. Three trails start here together, so check the colour at each post: yellow is the short Deer Watch loop, and red is the Radnor Trail, which shares a lot of this route before carrying on south.

You start under Douglas firs planted in the 1860s that now stand over 50 m tall. Then you cross the Ornamental Drive to the platform, a raised deck looking over an open meadow ringed by oaks. Fallow deer graze there, but they're wild and nobody feeds them any more, so some days you get a herd and some days an empty field.

From the platform the path heads downhill on gravel, over two short footbridges by a little pond, and down a forest track to the low point, about 40 m below the car park. The way back climbs through mixed woodland and crosses the Ornamental Drive again. Most of it is easy going, but two short slopes are properly steep.

Bolderwood had a royal hunting lodge from at least 1325 until the 1700s. Many of the oaks grew from acorns of trees planted then to give the Royal Navy its timber. The Great Storms of 1987 and 1991 took a lot of trees here, so parts of the loop are younger replanting among the survivors.

The car park is a paid Forestry England one with toilets and picnic tables, but don't count on buying food. It gets busy at peak times; if it's full, drive on to Bratley View or Canadian Memorial rather than parking on the verges. Dogs are welcome. The Canadian War Memorial, a plain wooden cross where Canadian troops gathered for services before D-Day, is just north of the car park.

If you only want the deer, the yellow Deer Watch Trail is a 0.3-mile loop to the platform. For a longer walk, the red Radnor Trail is about 2 miles.