Join us for a Oak Vale Forest Walk

This trail is undulating, uneven and challenging. It uses tracks, pavements and well-trodden paths to guide you around ancient earthworks of Ambresbury Banks and past the Deer Sanctuary.

Meeting point

Theydon Bois Tube Station 10.30am

Epping Forest has 9 official waymarked walking trails, but the Epping Forest Oak Trail is the longest and arguably the best of the bunch. It forms a 6.6-mile loop beginning and ending in the village of Theydon Bois, taking you through some beautiful parts of northern Epping Forest and its surrounding Buffer Lands on its way.

The Deer Sanctuary was established in 1959 by the Conservators to protect the special dark-coloured fallow deer that live in Epping Forest.

It provides safe grazing for over 100 animals. There is no public access to the Sanctuary.

Expect to stroll through farmland, countryside and small villages before entering the ancient forest itself. From here, you’ll meander along scenic forest tracks, see the remains of an Iron Age hill fort at Ambresbury Banks, and walk along the edge of a deer sanctuary, home to 100 fallow deer.