Colwick Woods, Nottingham

One Sunday last month it was a surprisingly sunny day and I decided to venture out to Colwick Woods. I’d realised while looking at new to me green spaces in Nottingham that although I’ve been to Colwick Country Park a number of times I’d never been to the nearby woods. 50 hectares large it is an ancient woodland that has been around since at least the early 1600s and even possibly longer as well as part of it being farmland that was abandoned in the 1950s.

The woods were once part of the Colwick Hall Estate that was owned by the Bryon family (as in Lord Byron) and managed as a deer park. There are remains of the ice house that belonged to the hall that I’d spotted on a map at the Greenwood Road entrance but I think I must have turned right when I should have turned left and never managed to find it – there are fairly easy to follow trails throughout the woods, some a little muddy, but not a great deal of signage.

Apart from a few dog walkers near the entrance, which is more flat fields than woods, I didn’t notice anyone else on the trail. It was very peaceful with just birds, butterflies and the odd squirrel darting through the trees. Hard to believe it’s so close to busy roads.

During the First World War the woods were a site of anti-aircraft guns and a searchlight was erected on the hill in the woodland – I’m assuming somewhere around the photo below. During the Second World War the woods were fenced off and indeed as I’d been walking around I’d wondered about all the fence posts no longer attached to anything. The woods were also used as a POW camp for German and then Italian prisoners.

I spent around an hour or so wandering through the woods and managed to loop around back to the entrance, passing through some attractive bluebell areas as I did so. It’s a really lovely space and perfect to get a bit of your fix of nature in the city.

PS Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the sculptures near the entrance – I particularly liked the badger.