Beyond the Castle: the Long Walk, Windsor Great Park and the Savill Garden

Windsor Castle gets the crowds, and understandably so. But the coaches decant everyone at the gates, they shuffle through the State Apartments and St George's Chapel, and then they leave, often within a couple of hours of arriving. What they miss is the landscape immediately to the south: a dead-straight avenue, a deer park, ancient oaks and one of the finest gardens in England, all within easy reach of the Castle walls. If you have half a day and a decent pair of shoes, this is where Windsor actually opens up.

Why bother going beyond the Castle

It is a question of scale and pace. The Castle is a set of rooms, however grand, and you experience it in a queue. Windsor Great Park is the opposite: open, quiet in patches, and entirely free to walk. The two work best as a pair, the compressed formality of the state rooms followed by the release of the parkland. Most visitors never make the switch, which is precisely why the Park feels so much less crowded than the ticket queue you have just left behind.

The Long Walk

The Long Walk is the obvious starting point, not least because it starts right at the Castle. Charles II laid it out in the 1680s as a grand approach, and it has not deviated an inch since: two and a half miles, dead straight, running south from the George IV Gateway to a rise called Snow Hill. At the top stands the Copper Horse, an equestrian statue of George III, and it is worth knowing that this is where the view back is best. The Castle sits framed at the far end of the avenue the entire way, growing smaller behind you as you walk and then, from the Copper Horse, revealed in full.

You do not need to walk all two and a half miles to get the point. The avenue is broad, level and lined with plane and horse chestnut trees, and even a stroll of twenty minutes gives you the framing effect the Long Walk was designed for. Go further and you pass through the Deer Park itself. One rule worth knowing before you set off: cycling and skating are not permitted on the Long Walk or in the Deer Park section, so this stretch is for walkers only.

Windsor Great Park and its deer

The Long Walk is really just the spine of something much larger. Windsor Great Park covers more than 5,000 acres of former royal hunting forest, threaded with waymarked routes for both walking and cycling, and home to some of the oldest oak trees in northern Europe, trees that were already substantial when the Long Walk was planted. Access on foot is free throughout, though some car parks do charge, so it is worth checking before you drive in.

The Deer Park, reached off the Long Walk, holds a resident herd of red deer within its enclosed boundary. They are shy animals and sensible about the heat of the day, so early morning or late afternoon gives you the best chance of seeing them properly. If you can time a visit for fresher autumn air, the rut is the most dramatic period to watch, with stags roaring and posturing in a way that makes the rest of the year's grazing look positively sedate.

The Savill Garden and the seasons

Push further into the Park, towards Englefield Green, and you reach the Savill Garden, a 35-acre ornamental garden created in the 1930s for King George V by the horticulturist Eric Savill. It is a different register entirely from the wilder oak woodland: a Winter Garden, a Rose Garden, a Dry Garden, and collections of magnolia, rhododendron and hydrangea that between them mean there is rarely a dead season here. Spring brings the magnolias and rhododendrons into their own; summer belongs to the roses; and even winter has its own quiet interest in the Winter Garden's bark and structure. If you have the chance, a return visit at a different time of year shows you a genuinely different garden, not just the same paths with different labels.

It is a few miles from central Windsor, so you will need a short drive or a taxi rather than an extension of your walk. Book online in advance if you can; it tends to work out cheaper than paying on the day, with adult tickets bought ahead running roughly £8 to £10, though it is always worth checking current prices before you go.

Practical notes

None of this requires much planning. The Long Walk begins at the Castle, so you can simply keep walking south once you have finished with the State Apartments, no separate journey required. It is also one of the more accessible long walks within reach of London: broad, level and easy underfoot, so it suits pushchairs, wheelchairs and anyone who does not fancy a scramble.

Because the Great Park is so large, it pays to decide in advance which part you actually want to see and pick your entry point accordingly, rather than wandering in and hoping to stumble across the deer or the garden. A sensible sequence for a half-day out is Castle first, then the Long Walk on foot as far as you fancy, perhaps into the Deer Park if the light is right, then a short drive to the Savill Garden to finish somewhere calmer and more contained. Remember, too, that the Long Walk and Deer Park are for walkers only; if cycling is part of your plan, stick to the Park's other waymarked routes instead. Do it this way and Windsor stops being a single monument you tick off and becomes a proper day in the landscape that surrounds it.