🥾 Walking route
Hatfield Forest and Flitch Way Walk, Hatfield Forest
Essex
- 📏 6 km · 3.7 mi
- ⛰ +75 m
- ⏱ 1 hr 30 min
- 🐕 On lead
Walk stats
- Distance6 km · 3.7 mi
- Elevation+75 m
- Duration1 hr 30 min
- DifficultyEasy
- Route typeCircular
- TerrainLevel forest tracks, grassy rides and easy woodland paths
- Best seasonSpring for bluebells and fresh leaf, autumn for colour
- DogsDogs welcome on leads, especially near grazing livestock
About this walk
Starting from the Forest Café, this gentle circular walk explores one of Essex's best-loved woodlands. The path leads out past Gravelpit Coppice and joins the line of Stane Street, the old Roman route that clips the edge of the forest, before turning through Street Coppice and out into the open ground around Elmans Green.
From here the route climbs very gently, gaining just 75 metres in total, to reach Portingbury Hills, a set of low earthworks tucked among the trees. The way home threads through Round Coppice and back into the heart of Hatfield Forest, with glimpses of grazing lawns, veteran pollards and quiet rides typical of this ancient landscape.
Allow around an hour and a half at a steady pace. If you have time to spare, nearby Priory Wood, Shermore Brook and Pincey Brook are all within easy reach, and the church of St John the Evangelist at Bush End sits just beyond the forest boundary.
Route map
Route line drawn from OpenStreetMap footpath data. Numbered markers are waypoints on the route; amber star markers are points of interest a short detour away.
Waypoints along the route
8 waypoints along the way
- 1
Forest Café
- 2
Gravelpit Coppice
- 3
Stane Street
- 4
Street Coppice
- 5
Elmans Green
- 6
Portingbury Hills
- 7
Round Coppice
- 8
Hatfield Forest
Worth a short detour
Points of interest just off the route, look for the amber markers on the map.
Priory Wood
~279 m off the route
Shermore Brook
~282 m off the route
Pincey Brook
~492 m off the route
St John the Evangelist, Bush End
~400 m off the route
Elgin Coppice
~210 m off the route
Route & waypoint data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).