Horseshoe Lake

• Free parking (2.1m height restriction)
• Bins
• Benches and picnic tables
• Watersports centre
• Café with inside & outside seating, and kiosk service (dogs welcome)
• Dedicated dog beach (What3Words: fall.yard.glue)
• Circular walk along the River Blackwater and around Horseshoe Lake (no swimming)
• Circular walk of around 2km
• Permanent orienteering course
• Links to longer walks along the Blackwater Valley Path and to Ambarrow Court

Where you’ll find it…

The free car park is on Mill Lane, Sandhurst, nearest postcode GU47 8JW. Grid reference SU 82031 62019. What3Words: bricks.blame.salon. It’s just inside the entrance to Horseshoe Lake Activity Centre, you can’t miss it.

N.B. We’ve given the nearest postcode, but recommend using the links to look up the exact location. The centre of a postcode may be up to half a mile from your destination.

What you’ll find there…

Water-lovers everywhere will enjoy this fabulous lake, where you can join in with watersports or simply take a stroll. The surrounding countryside is ideal for gentle walks and there’s a good path enjoying views across the lake. Created by gravel extraction in the 1980s, it now offers sailing, canoeing, windsurfing and paddle boarding and has a lakeside café.

It’s a great place to brush up your waterfowl identification. So if you don’t know your Widgeon from your Gadwall, this is the place to head in winter. And in summer, wildlife enthusiasts can enjoy Swallows, Swifts, dragonflies and many other species. Maybe you’ll even see a Kingfisher or a Barn Owl? In 2021 Bracknell Forest Council did a great deal of work on the island, to create a refuge for ground-nesting water birds such as Oystercatchers, Common Terns and Little-ringed Plovers.

Walk from the far end of the car park and you’ll join the route of the Blackwater Valley Path along the north bank of the river. Follow the river until you reach the Moor Green Lakes bird hide and, just before here, turn right to return via the activity centre. The hide is for members only, but there is a screened observation point where you can take a peak at what’s going on on the neighbouring nature reserve.

If you fancy a longer walk, you can follow the well-marked footpath over to Ambarrow Court & Hill. This short walk (10 minutes) takes you across farmland with grazing horses (dogs on leads please) to a woodland nature reserve, once a Victorian country estate.

Horseshoe Lake is featured in Bracknell Forest Council’s leaflet Great places for circular walks and makes a good hopping off point for longer walks. You can pick up the Finchampstead Parish Council Walk 2, a 4 mile circular walk from Simon’s Wood  to Horseshoe Lake and Moor Green Lakes; the Wokingham Way; or join the Blackwater Valley Path, a 23 mile walk from the source of the River Blackwater in Rowhill Nature Reserve to Swallowfield where it meets the rivers Whitewater and Loddon.

Note: Dog walkers should be aware that cattle may be grazing. There’s access to water at the dog beach and the riverside part of the walk is shady.

Gallery…

This ‘Greenspace on your doorstep’ is managed by…

Bracknell Forest Council