Audley End - round the outside

We start from the end of Abbey Lane in Saffron Walden (where the Almhouses and Repell Ditch can be seen; see Saffron Walden - Town and Gardens), walk by the banks of The Slade, a tributary of the River Cam, and then along the perimeter of the Saffron Walden golf club course. Our footpath route cuts across the Audley End Grounds and joins a farm road passing behind the Tea House Bridge (see Audley End - Grounds) to the B1383 Littlebury to Newport road. We go down here and enjoy excellent views of both Audley End House and its stable block / exhibition centre. On the other side of the road we see the Ring Hill Temple, a circular stuccoed building with a leaded dome and a colonnade of 12 Ionic columns.

We then walk along the front of Audley End seeing the arch of the Lion Gate - this is the main entrance to the estate - and divert through tiny Audley End village itself; this was once the medieval village of Brookwalden and housed the workers at Walden Abbey and is literally a short row of small houses. We see Saint Mark's College - this was built on the site of almshouses that were attached to a hospital (part of Walden Abbey), but is now a residential youth and conference centre.

We double back and then continue uphill outside the boundary walls before turning to cross the estate back to where we started earlier; as we descend we see an obelisk in the distance. This is a commemorative column dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth, Countess of Portsmouth; she left the estate to the first Lord Braybrooke back in the 18th century and it was he who had the garden and grounds laid out by Capability Brown.Read more