Starting from Postern Hill Car Park this circular route explore much of the beautiful forest including several of the named oaks and the arboretum.
Calculated time: 2h05[?] 
Distance : 6.62km
Vertical gain : 69m
Vertical drop : 68m
Highest point : 201m
Lowest point : 153m 
Difficulty : Easy
Back to starting point : Yes
Walking
Location : Savernake
Starting point : N 51.410834° / W 1.715539° 
(D/A) Postern Hill Car Park. Walk along the tarmac track from the car park to find Bumble Oak, with a Forestry England map of the forest opposite. Facing the map, take a track setting off from the left of it. Follow the broad track. Reaching a crossroads turn left.
(1) Almost immediately see White Road Oak. Continue to another crossroads and turn right. The track goes down and up, passing straight on over a junction. As it curves left, look out for and take a small path to the right on Long Harry path. This brings you to Saddle Oak 2.
(2) Where Long Harry path split, turn right down a narrower path. At the fork at the bottom, bear right and come into the open and take the path straight on. Enter woods and turn left at T junction. Almost immediately, go straight on up a narrow path. Very soon, turn right at T junction by a barbed wire fence. soon turn left at a fork and keep near the fence on left.
(3) As the fence turns left, look to the right to see True Braydon Oak. Continue downhill on the path and reach a gate with a field straight ahead. Head towards this and take 2nd left turn near the fence.
(4) This leads to the Arboretum area with many international trees. Do explore but return to a central path through and come out onto Grand Avenue. Turn left. At hill bottom, turn right onto a grassy path. Go through a gate and immediately turn left. Keep straight on.
(5) After a fallen tree on left, look left to see Surveyed Oak, 2 minutes walk from the path. Continue on the path and when you hear traffic on the nearby A4 very close, look out on the left for a narrow path. This path goes uphill and up and down over little earthworks. Soon reach Grand Avenue again. Go straight over onto a path dropping downhill. At crossroads at the bottom, turn right onto a broad grassy path. Go straight over first crossroads and right at the next.
(6) Very soon see Old Paunchy on the left. Continue uphill to a gate onto a broad unsurfaced track. Turn left then almost immediately right onto a narrow path.
(7) Lookout on the right for Cathedral Oak. No name sign, but you cannot miss it as it has a huge trunk and is the oldest tree here. C.1500 years. Continue until you reach a grassy area. Take a few paces forward and turn left to soon join a broad track. Turn right Follow the track curving to the left to bring you back to Bumble Oak and the car park.(D/A)
Waypoints :
D/A : km 0 - alt. 200m - Postern Hill Car Park
1 : km 0.73 - alt. 184m - White Road Oak
2 : km 1.78 - alt. 172m - Split
3 : km 2.45 - alt. 175m - True Braydon Oak
4 : km 2.82 - alt. 169m - Arboretum
5 : km 3.84 - alt. 161m - Surveyed Oak
6 : km 5.2 - alt. 181m - Old Paunchy
7 : km 5.75 - alt. 191m - Cathedral Oak
D/A : km 6.62 - alt. 200m - Postern Hill Car Park
Boots recommended as parts can be muddy after rain.
Visorando and this author cannot be held responsible in the case of accidents or problems occuring on this walk.
This is a beautiful ancient forest at any time of year.
Enjoy finding the named trees and enjoy the majestic trees in the arboretum.
Good place for a picnic.
Global average : 4.33/5
Number of opinions : 2
Description quality : 4.5/5
Routemap quality : 4/5
Walk interest : 4.5/5
Thanks very much for your comments and I am glad you enjoyed the walk.
I walk in the forest regularly and know it well. It is quite hard writing directions for forest walks as there are not too many landmarks. Also the mapping is not great, and does not show all paths.
Global average : 4.67 / 5
Date of walk
: 22/10/20
Description quality
: Good
Routemap quality
: Very good
Walk interest
: Very good
A lovely walk through ancient woodland, with an arbouretum area too. We wandered around for more than 2 hours, but could have spent much longer there, as the area was so interesting.
Parking may be a problem at popular times.
Global average : 4 / 5
Date of walk
: 21/10/20
Description quality
: Very good
Routemap quality
: Average
Walk interest
: Good
A lovely time of year for a walk in a deciduous forest. There's masses of space to amble and picnic ... but not so many parking places so it pays to think about timing of one's arrival. The maps of the forest paths are few and far between so ability to read the map (helpfully supplied with the walking guide) or a splendid sense of direction are certainly beneficial as the written instructions were probably prepared by someone who can either do that or who knows the forest well. Rather helpfully the named oaks have signs beside them which help those of us challenged with the above to orient ourselves.
This was my first experience of visorando and I would definitely try it again.
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