http://www3.hants.gov.uk/rvcp

Royal Victoria Country Park is one of my more favourite walking spots. A 10 minute drive away from me in the car, it offers my dogs everything.

Originally this was the grounds of the worlds largest military hospital which was built to serve soldiers injured or suffering from infectious tropical diseases during the Crimean War and walking through the grounds you cannot help but feel the history here!



The hospital was shut down in the 60's and in the mid 70's a suspiscious fire gutted a large part of it, the site was bought by the local council and sadly the decision was made to demolish the main structure. The chapel remains as a heritage centre/museum and if you are brave enough and have enough puff you can climb right to the top of that wonderful spire and gaze out over Southampton Water.



Directly in front of the chapel, about 500yds away, is Southampton Water. The beach is a pebbly one but that doesnt matter as we all know what springers + water means. Mmmm, yes! Wet dogs!

Behind the chapel is woodland and camping & picnic fields. You can walk through the woodland area or at the end of the main field there is a little road leading off it. As you follow this little road through the trees the ground drops away quite steeply in places either side of the tarmac and if you look down you can see the wetland areas that my boys love so much, bless them Be warned, the mud that they end up wearing from this area is thick, black and smelly. But then it would be, of course, thats why they like it so much

Eventually the road will lead you to a set of wrought iron gates, go through the gates and you find yourself in the old military cemetary. This has a variety of military and private burials in it. The military ones are all maintained and neat and tidy, but the private ones, well alot of them are in a state of disrepair. Which makes me feels sad because if you look at the dates you realise that these people have now passed out of living memory and have noone left to look after their final resting place. Not only soldiers but also nursing staff and their families were buried here. This is my favourite part of this Park, its so peaceful in here and I could spend hours wandering through and looking at the headstones. Its thought provoking and sad. Sometimes you spot little headstones nestled under trees and flowering rhodedenrons and it tugs your heartstrings, then you walk on through and there is all the war graves. Read some of the ages on the First World War headstones and it really brings to home to you. Nineteen, twenty-one, eighteen...



There is camping facilities here and the grounds are regularly used for various different types of shows, including dog shows and agility displays. As well as that there is a very nice little coffee shop and for the big kids amongst us there is a sit-and-ride railway as well.



All in all, its a good day out and a grand place for the dogs

Sounds really worthwhile visiting. We are in Pompey so not that far away from us by car. Will def try it out with our 2 labs as should be a nice change!