While visiting family in the South West, I decided to expand my collection of parkrun venues in this region, and took a trip to Cranbrook Country park for my 52nd parkrun venue. Cranbrook Country parkrun is a twice (or more accurately 1.5x) out and back course, with a loop section at the end of lap one. It reminds me a lot of Bicester parkrun, which has a very similar feel to it in a lot of ways. It is run mostly on footpath, but with shortish grass/mud section at the start, as well as at the end of lap 1 into the beginning of lap 2. [I first visited this parkrun on 29th October 2022]
Bit of History
Cranbrook is a new town being developed in East Devon just outside of Exeter. Being a new town it is very much still under construction and as of 2022 is still waiting for it's town centre to be built, as well as not yet having a full size supermarket. It does however have a fairly new railway station (completed in 2015) on the Exeter to Waterloo line, where you can park for free if doing parkrun. Bordering to the North and South and also running right through the middle of Cranbrook is Cranbrook Country park, which is 30 hectares of public parkland across 3 separate meadows and is home to Kingfishers, bats, ducks, insects and plants (and also now parkrun).
Briefings
First Timer/Visitor Briefing is held on a grass trail running alongside the railway line which leads from the station car park to the start of the parkrun, and included a good description of the course as well as some guidance for first timers. The main brief was held at the start with a loudhailer, and was mostly a recap of the earlier brief but there were a couple of runners in fancy dress for Halloween who got called out (a witch and a ghostbuster).
The Course
From the footpath leaving the station car park, you head onto a grass trail running alongside the railway line, and onto the start. At the start you are basically heading east along the grass with the railway line on the left, you then take a sweeping right turn up a slight incline and off the grass taking a slight left onto a compacted gravel footpath, you will come to a left turn and head over a footbridge, left after the bridge and you now stay on this footpath, with a few twists and turns but keeping Cranbrook town on your right the whole time, heading more or less East all the way to the end of the park. At the end of the park you will reach a marshal with a bollard, round the bollard, past all the other parkrunners, don't forget to wave/thumbs up/high five your running buddies, then it is back along the path, there is a slight deviation on the way back, taking a left turn before reaching the footbridge for the second time. After the footbridge it is a right turn, heading back towards the start, instead of going back down onto the grass, you take a sweeping left, staying on the footpath, for a bit longer, but then you take a sweeping right turn onto the grass and looping back to the start for lap 2. Lap 2 takes the same route all the way back out across the park as Lap 1 until the marshal with the bollard, round the bollard a second time, and then halfway back across the park to the finish (fairly close the the footbridge), which is about 5 mins walk from the start and car park. There is also a winter version of the course which stays entirely on hard surfaced paths, and cuts out the grass section, but I don't have the full details on that version of the course.
Difficulty
No hills, would be a 1 out of 5 except for the grass. The grass section takes it up to a 1.5 out of 5. Road shoes are fine here, unless there has been a lot of rain, but even then I would hesitate to recommend trails due to the fact that 80% of this route is on a hard surface. But in summary this is a fairly easy and straightforward parkrun to run.
Elevation
Garmin says there is 22m of total elevation, but it doesn't seem like this out on course, there is one very short climb, coming off the grass onto the path, but other than that it seems very flat. There must be some very long gently inclines out there, but you can't really feel them if there are.
Parking, Facilities and Coffee
Free parking at the train station, the nearest postcode is EX5 3BA. (https://what3words.com/snuggle.spinners.shack), and good train or bus links if you don't want to bring the car. No toilets are in evidence in the park, and I don't believe the station has any either. I tried to do some research on other possible toilets but my research came up blank, possibly best to try and go before you come. Two options for a post parkrun coffee either at Café @143 or the The Cranberry Farm pub. I didn't stick around to try these as I had to head back.
Other Points of Interest
This parkrun has a 'honk if you're happy' hooter, which you can use if you get a PB, if it's your first time, or if you are just happy about life. There are also a few areas for kids to explore with swings tied to trees and one rope swing over the brook, for details see the Devondaze website.
Summary
A very chilled friendly and relaxed parkrun in a very pretty country park. I wasn't really in the best form this morning and never settled properly, but I did enjoy the scenery and would definitely make a revisit when I'm back in the area. It was easy to find and get to and it's nice to park for free. It's another sociable parkrun with crossing points with slower/faster runners which is always good fun, just remember to keep left before and after the turn points and over the footbridge. This parkrun was also the first outing for my new 50 venues t-shirt.
Links
Link to official parkrun site for this course: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/cranbrookcountrypark/
Link to the Cranbrook Country Park site: https://www.cranbrooktowncouncil.gov.uk/country-park/
My YouTube Video Review of this parkrun: