A visit to Castle Hedingham and a short walk

On 19th August 2025, eleven of us went in 3 cars to Castle Hedingham where we regrouped at the café within the castle – seated on what felt like medieval chairs at medieval tables. Unfortunately, they only had cakes, not savoury food. After refreshments we spent some time exploring the Norman castle, of which only the Keep remains, then met up again outside to do the walk.

Exiting the castle grounds past the ornamental lakes, we turned left to the end of the village, then left out of the village and a short way up the road turned onto a footpath behind the castle.

The original walk was to be 3.75 miles, but that hadn’t factored in visiting the castle, which has limited opening days, but being a circular walk basically on footpaths/fields around the perimeter of the village there were places to cut it shorter, so it was about 2 miles. We did cross the tracks of the Colne Valley Railway, next to an old signal box, before following a meadow path between the railway track and the River Colne. On reaching a road we turned left back into the village to find a tea-shop or pub, settling for the latter as the tea-rooms shut around 3.30pm.

The village itself is a lovely mix of medieval houses, including the Old Moot House (currently a tea-room/restaurant but up for sale as a private residence), thatched cottages and more modern houses, plus two pubs and a small gallery/tea-room.

Including walking around inside the castle we covered over 4 miles and having left Eagle Lane at 10am we were home at around 6pm after an enjoyable trip.  

Richard, 21st August 2025

Photos by Madeleine

We were all in agreement that the grounds of the Castle were beautiful

 What a super day we had at Castle Hedingham. Here are some us enjoying the lovely grounds around the Keep.This photo was taken from the Minstrels Gallery at Castle Hedingham

Photos by Lorraine