Dog Walking in Oxfordshire #3 Brasenose Wood, Oxford
Updated: Oct 2
There are walks where the destination is the attraction, and then there are walks where part of the pleasure comes from simply wandering and seeing where a path takes you.
Brasenose Wood, on the edge of Shotover Country Park in east Oxford, is very much the latter.
Tucked away behind the busy Oxford Ring Road, this relatively small area of woodland feels surprisingly peaceful once you have left the traffic behind. The ground is largely level, the paths are generally easy underfoot, and there are numerous tracks to explore, making it a particularly enjoyable place for a leisurely dog walk.
And, as I discovered on a recent walk with Nellie, you don't necessarily need to follow
a prescribed route.
Starting the walk
We parked at the large car park on Horsepath Driftway, where parking is currently free with a maximum stay of three hours.
The location is particularly convenient if you're coming from Oxford, as it's just off the Ring Road. There are also several useful amenities nearby, including an Aldi supermarket and Costa which is handy for a post-walk coffee and cake.
From the car park, head towards Aldi. To the right of the supermarket is a pedestrian path leading to the crossing over the Oxford Ring Road.
The crossing is important because this is a very busy dual carriageway. Once safely across, a gate and then a kissing gate lead into a large grassy field.
We kept Nellie on her lead here. Apart from being close to the road, the fields and woodland are home to wildlife including muntjac deer, and Nellie is rather interested in anything that moves!
A diagonal track crosses the field towards the woodland. After around five minutes, the trees begin to surround you and the character of the walk changes completely.
Into Brasenose Wood
At the entrance is a Welcome to Shotover Country Park – Slade Camp sign, which provides a fascinating glimpse into the area's past.
It is easy to look at the woodland today and imagine that it has always been here. It hasn't.
During the Second World War, this was the site of Slade Camp, built in 1939 by the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry as a training camp. It contained roads, service buildings and wooden huts.
After the war, with Oxford desperately short of housing, the huts were converted into homes and the area became known as Slade Park. Families lived here until the development of the eastern bypass, now part of the Oxford Ring Road, cut through the area in 1959.
The final residents eventually moved away around 1970, after which the buildings were dismantled and the land gradually returned to nature.
Today, the woodland conceals much of that history, although the Shotover Preservation Society has been uncovering foundations and researching the memories of former residents as part of the Slade Camp project.
It gives the walk an added sense of place. You're not simply walking through a patch of woodland; you're walking through an area that was once home to families.
A woodland made for exploring
One of the things I particularly like about Brasenose Wood is how different it feels from Shotover Hill.
Although the two are closely connected, Shotover is known for its hills and more demanding walking. Brasenose is comparatively flat and much gentler.
The main tracks are reasonably wide, with a mixture of gravel and compacted earth, and on our visit they were relatively even, without many exposed roots. During dry weather, this makes for very easy walking.
There are several paths branching away in different directions, so rather than following one particular route, we decided to explore and create our own circular walk.
There is a marked route on the map at the entrance of around 1.2 miles, but there is plenty of scope to make your walk shorter or considerably longer by exploring the various tracks.
You could easily spend a couple of hours wandering around the woodland, or, as we did, make a shorter outing of around 40 minutes.
That's part of its appeal.
A lovely walk for dogs
Once we were well away from the road, Nellie was able to come off her lead and thoroughly enjoyed herself.
There is plenty for a dog to investigate here, woodland scents, squirrels, deer and, on our particular visit, a rather large fox which Nellie took great delight in chasing!
Thankfully, her recall is reasonably reliable and three short blasts on my whistle brought her back.
A little later she discovered a rabbit, so there was plenty of excitement for one small dog.
The woodland is also bordered in places by open grassy fields. These make lovely places to stop for a picnic or play ball with your dog, although it's worth remembering that livestock and wildlife may be present.
Woodland, water and bluebells
The character of Brasenose changes with the seasons.
There is plenty of deciduous woodland and bracken, and in spring the area is particularly attractive when the bluebells appear.
At the time of our visit, the trees were beginning to take on their autumn colours, giving the woodland a completely different atmosphere.
A stream runs around part of the perimeter. It was dry during our visit following the dry summer, although there are stepping stones where the path crosses it and I remember this area being considerably wetter during the winter months.
In fact, if you're visiting after prolonged rain, I'd expect some sections to become very boggy.
There are no facilities within the woodland itself, no toilets, café, water or benches. There are, however, plenty of fallen logs and natural places to pause for a while.
And perhaps that's exactly how it should be.
How long is the walk?
There isn't really a single answer.
The signed trail is approximately 1.2 miles, but you can extend your walk considerably by exploring the network of paths or continuing towards the wider Shotover Country Park.
Our own circular route took around 40 minutes, but there's no reason to rush.
You could make this a short, gentle stroll or spend a couple of hours exploring.
Because the terrain is predominantly flat, Brasenose is also a useful option for anyone who finds steep or strenuous walking difficult. Older walkers, people who aren't particularly fit, or owners with older dogs may appreciate being able to enjoy woodland without having to tackle the hills of Shotover.
Brasenose Wood or Shotover?
If you're familiar with Shotover, Brasenose offers something quite different.
Shotover is the place to go for hills, wider views and more strenuous walking. Brasenose is quieter, flatter and more exploratory.
And the two can be combined if you're looking for a longer outing.
For me, though, the appeal of Brasenose is its simplicity. There are no grand viewpoints or visitor attractions. Instead, there are trees, paths, wildlife, a little history and the freedom to wander.
It feels like somewhere you discover rather than somewhere you tick off.
And with Nellie happily investigating every scent, keeping an eye out for deer and chasing the occasional rabbit, that was more than enough for us.
After our 40-minute wander, we headed back across the Ring Road and made the short trip to Costa for a well-earned coffee and cake.
A pretty good ending to a very enjoyable morning.
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If you'd like something more challenging, our walks around Shotover Hill offer considerably more elevation and some spectacular views
Photography
Brasenose Wood is also a wonderful location for dog photography, if you'd like to find out what I can offer please follow this link
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