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.Okumaya devam et