This route covers Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve and extends out towards Ollerton and Wellow. It sits near Rufford Country Park, but the walk itself goes further into Sherwood Forest and loops through the nearby villages.
Woodland is a mixed blessing. It is quieter and there is more to sniff, but the sight lines are short and things appear around corners without warning — including bikes, which move fast and quietly.
Go early. It is considerably busier at weekends and in the afternoon, and a route this length gives a reactive dog a lot of opportunities to meet something.
If your dog is early in their work, this is not the one to start with.
Because it is genuinely beautiful, and because a dog who has done the work deserves somewhere worth walking. The ancient oaks are extraordinary, the woodland smells are on a different scale to a field, and ten miles of varied ground is the kind of day a confident dog will sleep off happily.
Treat it as a goal rather than a starting point. It is the sort of walk that belongs in stage four, when the things you actually wanted become possible again.
Shorter walks · Long lines and decompression · How the four stages work