[1] START – Check-out the sightings board outside the RSPB building here at Nagshead (SO607085), which lists the bird species recorded recently and often mentions animals seen by visitors and staff. The way is then through the handgate above the building and up the wide forestry road. In less than 200m, turn L on a gently rising compact-surface road, which soon curls R, and stick with this for almost a mile. This is an excellent area for spotting deer. Fallow is the most likely to be seen, with roe and the tiny muntjack also present in increasing numbers. Autumn is the rutting season and the best time for catching sight of these timid beasts of the forest.

[2] The roadway reaches a major junction just past a gate. Bear R here on the wide roadway (not the path), passing by an area to your L that was felled a few years ago. Stick with the main drag for about a mile, keeping your eyes peeled for a set of electricity cables above the track beyond another felled area (there’s a large sub-station off to the L). Turn sharp-R onto a path here, beneath the line of wires, and in another 120m (by a pylon) turn L on a path that slinks through the woods to reach a rough lane. Just up to the L here are overgrown quarries, where episodes of Dr Who were filmed in the 1970s.

[3] The onward route is to the R, down the uneven old track. It's a delightful descent into this narrow slade (valley). Bicslade was the route by which stone blocks from the quarry were moved on a tramroad down to distant stoneworks until WW2 - the old stone sleeper blocks are still in place. Several abandoned freemines are passed before the track bends L at a junction by a quarry entrance. Head half-R here to find a stirring memorial sculpture to victims of a long-ago mining disaster. Beside this is Monument mine, one of the few remaining free mines still being worked. Remain with the firm access roadway all the way down to the bottom, and bear R to find the main road at lay-bys.

[4] Cross L to the fence surrounding the Forest of Dean Stoneworks, turning L along it. This is where the horse-drawn tram road headed. The works are still very much in business and absorbing to watch. Continue between the works and the lake – this is Cannop Pond, empounded to power a huge 51ft waterwheel at iron-furnaces in distant Parkend. Cross the spillway and go ahead to the line of the old railway. Turn R past the former tram/rail interchange wharf and remain with the hard-surfaced cycleway. You'll see areas of the verges that have been comprehensively grubbed up. This is evidence of wild boar digging for food, of which several hundred call Dean home.

[5] Cross the road and continue on the well-used track into Parkend along the rough Hughes Terrace. Turn R on the nearby main roadside footpath, skirting the works' fencing, then R in 300m up the forestry road back to Nagshead.