Thornham Walks is on an estate just outside the village of Thornham Magma. It should be possible to park nearby and walk on one of the footpaths to get onto the route, but I didn’t have time to check and perhaps that’s more for locals. There’s car parking on site, in any case, for £1 in cash which covers you until 10:30 (and a little after - we stayed longer and paid extra, but didn’t rush to do so after we were told it wasn’t monitored to the minute).
There are toilets on the walk to the start. Just follow the path, and the signs - the people ahead of me didn’t quite believe them, but we made it to the clearing where the start is without drama.
The route is a two-lapper, or nearly so, and you head past the turning to the finish on the first lap. It’s much clearer than it looks on the map; the latter makes it look as though you have to run through or past the finish line as you go through, but it’s a turning. It’s close enough to the route that I had time to finish, scan, wander about a bit indecisively and then remember that a friend was walking, go to cheer him on and end up walking the last lap again with him.
There are some narrow paths, as some of the pictures show, but also plenty of places to pass people, and with the long loop first and a shorter one after, there’s room for a lot of the field to spread out and not have to worry about people behind them finding space.
There’s a cafe with plenty of outdoor seating and good service back near the car park, and on a sunny day it felt like most of the people who finished took advantage. We ended up staying for a couple of hours, time enough for breakfast and late morning cake.
Results from Thornham Walks parkrun #5, 1/7/23; 179 finishers