Skip to main content

Rendlesham Forest parkrun

This week saw me visiting Rendlesham Forest parkrun in Suffolk for a relatively easy run before running the London 10k on Monday.

The area

Rendlesham Forest is located on the east coast, east of Ipswich. The forest as it is today is what remains after a large swathe of the forest was cleared to allow for the construction of an airfield (RAF Woodbridge) in 1943.

The forest is where the "Rendlesham Forest Incident" took place (the UK's version of the Roswell UFO incident), where Unidentified Flying Objects were reported to have been spotted in 1980.

Trees looking vivid in the morning sun

The course

The event takes place within the forest itself, and starts close to the main visitor car park. The route follows two overlapping laps around the forest's trails - the first lap taking runners south of the start area, before a longer loop taking runners on a longer loop to the north of the start. The route is all on trail, dirt, or sometimes sand paths, and there are plenty of roots along the course, and undulates subtly throughout, so this is definitely not a PB course!

A typical path through the forest

A number of car parks are available near the start, including several free car parks approximately a mile from the start, while several paid car parks are available closer to the start, including the main visitor centre. Toilets are available near the start at the main visitor centre car park.

The run

It was a very humid start to the day, with mist hanging in the air for most of my journey to the forest, but by 9am, the sun was shining brightly. As I was running the London 10k on Monday, my plan for the day was for a relatively easy run, and to enjoy the scenery - Rendlesham Forest wasn't going to let me down on that front!

Starting on one of the main fire roads through the forest, you quickly veer off onto forest paths, and I found myself quickly losing my sense of direction. I was playing "follow the leader" for a good portion of the run - hoping they didn't get lost, and being reassured by each marker arrow on the few un-marshalled corners.

One thing I hadn't anticipated was just how soft the ground was in places. With the surface feeling like sand in several sections, I was constantly scouting for the more densely packed surfaces, at the same time as avoiding roots, and keeping the next runner in sights - plenty to keep the mind busy!

Ian running

Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make this run so enjoyable!

After the run

Following the run, I took the opportunity to explore the forest more closely. Owing to the interest in the forest's relationship with the extraterrestrial, Forstry England, the owners of the forest, have created a walking trail called the UFO trail, and I decided I couldn't miss the opportunity to explore. Starting at the main visitor centre car park, the trail first leads through the woods towards RAF Woodbridge (where the reports of UFOs were first reported from), although the airfield itself is off limits, being an active military base and all!

RAF Woodbridge airfield

The next major milestone is an opening from where you can see the Orfordness Lighthouse on clear nights, which is the likely source of the lights attributed to the UFO sightings, although it was too light to see the lighthouse at the time of my visit!

Opening from which Orfordness Lighthouse can be seen

Slightly off the main trail lies the next milestone - a UFO!

UFO sculpture

The sculture marks the location of the actual sighting before theories about the Orfordness Lighthouse emerged.

Ian with the UFO sculpture

After reaching the end of the trail, I also wandered around the nearby woods and discovered that the Tangham Wood area houses a number of wooden sculptures which were interesting to hunt down!

Sculpture of a rabbit

Links: Results | Strava

References: The Rendlesham Forest Incident | Wikipedia

Labels:
Location: Tangham IP12 3NF, UK

Popular posts from this blog

Coldham's Common parkrun

As my recovery from injury is still underway, I decided that I would attend a flat course this week to avoid any potential for reaggrevation. Unfortunately this means I will need to pause my completion of the Essex events, as the remaining courses are all somewhat lumpy. Having visited all of the other Cambridge parkruns, including Storeys Field parkrun, Fulbourn Hospital parkrun, and Cambridge parkrun knowing that they are all relatively flat, I decided that this week I would complete the Cambridge set. The area Coldham's Common has a long history, serving as both a hospital during the 17th century smallpox outbreak, and a quarry during the 19th century, as well as a rifle range also during the 19th century. The course The route follows two laps of the perimeter of the common through an hour-glass shape, connecting two fields through a five-bar-gate. The course is all on grass, and is all flat. Limited parking is available nearby, while toilets are available in...
Read more

Delamere parkrun

Being the festive season, I decided to pause my exploration of the East of England in favour of visiting events closer to family in Liverpool. While there are a number of events closer to Liverpool, I decided to visit Delamere parkrun, being somewhere I hadn't explored when living in the area previously. The area Delamere forest is all that remains of a much larger forest in the area. The forest spent some time as a Royal hunting forest, before being handed to Forestry England. The course The course follows a single lap of a lollipop route, through forests, and around the Blakemere Moss lake, starting and finishing near the visitor centre. The visitor centre includes paid parking, toilets, and a cafe, while free parking is also available in some of the other forest car parks, though they are further from the start line providing a great opportunity for a warm up! The route is all on a mixture of gravel and trail, and is mostly flat except for one short but steep incl...
Read more

Aldenham parkrun

Icey conditions in days leading up to parkrun day meant many events were cancelled this week. While I would have ideally been able to visit another event in Essex, I decided that I valued having options more in the event of cancellation this week, and so I instead headed to the cluster of events surrounding the Watford area. The area Aldenham Country Park is located near Watford, and centres on Aldenham reservoir, with grassland and woodland surrounding the reservoir itself. The reservoir was excavated by French prisoners of war during 1795 as part of the wider management of the Grand Union Canal's water levels, and now serves as a reserve water supply. In addition to the reservoir, the country park also supports the breeding of a number of rare species of farm animals, including cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep. The course The course follows two laps of the reservoir, with the second lap skipping the inner peninsular. The course is flat, and is run mainly on trail pat...
Read more