ROUNDBALL WOOD HONITON

Roundball Wood, a community woodland on the slopes of Roundball Hill, has been registered as a BBC Breathing Place.

The wood has for several years been leased by Honiton Town Council and is maintained with help from wardens and other volunteers. The site has recently been extended and also includes an area of former pasture thereby adding to the variety of habitats. 

Access on foot inevitably involves some slopes but the views over the town and parts of the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and of the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (the wood is situated in the latter) are the reward.

View over Honiton to Dumpdon Hill (National Trust).

There is a viewpoint from the wood and the top of the hill, for the even more energetic, provides the best views.

A permissive path from Woodhill View (at the far end of that close) via the wood to Roundball Lane (close to the A375 Sidmouth Road) predates the lease of the wood and there is also access by another permissive path from the west side of the River Gissage Bridge at Battishorne Way. The wood is quite close to many of the newer homes in Honiton and even to the Gittisham Vale Estate in neighbouring Gittisham.

Muddy conditions and springline mires will be encountered at any time of year making appropriate footwear essential. Roundball Wood has a BBC Breathing Places website (please see Useful Links on this website).

The wood and the more easily accessable Gissage Riverside or River Gissage Walk, have joined The Glen, Honiton's only park, as important green spaces; these are becoming ever more valuable as the town expands.