Snelsmore Common Country Park, lovely place for a dog hike

With its network of heathland paths, Snelsmore Common Country Park is an excellent option for a dog walk in Berkshire. The park is 96 hectares (237 acres) and offers a variety of landscapes, including heathland, wet mires and woodland, making it an exciting option for dogs and humans alike.

Distance	Total Time	Difficulty
2.9 km	00:49	Easy

The site has several waymarked walking trails ranging from 1 to 3 km, and as we did, you can mix and match them to have even longer hikes in the park.

Parking and entry are free. Donations to support the work in the park are welcome and there is a pay point for that in the reception. There are plenty of parking spaces, and to get there, we used the name of the park plus the postcode on the satnav: Snelsmore Common Country Park, RG14 3BQ.

In terms of facilities, the park offers toilets, a café and a picnic area. As for dog waste bins, there were a few around the reception and the car park, but none during the hike.

You’re asked to keep dogs on leads during bird nesting season (March-July) whilst in the main common, but you can let your pooch run free during the other months. The Common is home for such rare birds as nightjar, tree pipit and woodlarks. 

At the start of the trail there’s a sign indicating that Exmoor and New Forest ponies graze in the area, but we didn’t encounter any on our walk. 

Don’t forget to check the post notes at the bottom of the page, with maps, a detailed table about the hike and links to everything mentioned in the post.

The Hike

We started the trail at the reception where there is a welcome panel with a map of the park and its various trails. We followed the orange waymarks from there, passing through the woods initially. 

Some of the trees are truly beautiful, even at this time of the year when they are still naked of leaves.

In some areas they are almost fully covered in moss – it’s almost as if you’re in a fairy tale. In a few weeks, the woodland floor will be covered in bluebells and you will surely feel like you’re in an enchanted forest.  

After a while, the trail turned into wet mires and the swampy look was quite interesting. The girls were really taking in the new smells.  

In an attempt to extend the walk, we then started to ignore the waymarks and just walked around the park trying to make a somehow circular route. 

Overall, it was a very enjoyable hike, and although very muddy, it was still an easy walk. The girls were excited and seemed to have fully enjoyed it.

Cheers,

Ademar