Online Guided Walks at Hillhouse Wood
The next Guided Walk at Hillhouse Wood is taking place this Saturday 10th May with an early start.
The Dawn Chorus (links to a previous report) walk starts from St Mary’s Old Church at 3:45 am on 10th May. This walk affords the opportunity to see Nightingales and many other brilliant dawn choristers. For this walk you should bring warm clothing, stout footwear, a flask of hot drink and a torch.
Although these walks are normally well attended it is likely that they don’t always fall on a convenient date or time. Well, the Friends of Hillhouse Wood have been working hard to put this right.
Welcome to Online Guided Walks
Putting together:
- a Google Map that can help you navigate through the woods, and
- YouTube videos describing what you might see at up to 17 waypoints,
… you can now guide yourself .
How to use it
The Google map is part of your virtual guide. As long as you have given Google permission to know your location, you can track your progress on the embedded map. To start the walk you should first zoom into the starting point 
(hidden behind 2 in the initial view) and then, as you progress, scroll the screen (methods might vary between iPhone & Android) to identify the next location. You can also use what3words (there are w3w links for each waypoint) to check you are at the correct location for each stop.
When at each location, tap the relevant button to play its video. For most locations what can be seen and heard varies throughout the year. Different buttons indicate which is the most appropriate video to view – 
, 
, 
or 
.
The guide is still being developed and should be complete by Spring 2026. Currently available videos are:
The Friends of Hillhouse Wood is a group of local residents who work with The Woodland Trust to look after this beautiful remnant of ancient woodland.