Premier Horse Riding in The Windsor Great Park

The tree-lined 2.64 miles (4.25 km) avenue known as the Long Walk was originally a path from Windsor Castle to Snow Hill. The high ground is said to have been the location where Henry VIII waited to hear the news that his second wife, Anne Boleyn, had been executed. Following the Restoration in 1660, Charles II had double rows of elm trees planted along the entire length of the path. The king was inspired to develop Windsor Castle and the surrounding parkland after he lived at the Palace of Versailles during his exile from Britain when it was the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. The creation of the Long Walk was one of his first improvement plans.[20]

The Long Walk runs south from Windsor Castle to The Copper Horse statue of King George III atop Snow Hill. The cast statue, which was erected 1829, is 2.65 miles (4.26 km) from the George IV Gateway at Windsor Castle to The Copper Horse.[21] Other equestrian statues in the park include one of Albert, Prince Consort, to the west of the polo grounds, and one of Queen Elizabeth II near the Village.

The Royal Chapel of All Saints was built after the chapels of the Royal and Cumberland Lodges proved too small for growing numbers of household staff.[22] The chapel was built in 1825 by Jeffry Wyattville and regularly used by George IV during the refurbishment of Windsor Castle. It was later remodelled in the Gothic Revival style by Samuel Sanders Teulon and Anthony Salvin. Queen Victoria often attended the chapel as did the Duke and Duchess of York before their accession as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.[23] It was regularly used by Queen Elizabeth II when she was in residence at Windsor.

Other notable buildings in the park include Cumberland Lodge, built in 1652 during the Commonwealth. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 the Lodge quickly became the home of the Ranger of the Great Park, an office in the gift of the sovereign. Each Ranger made his – or in one case, that of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, her – own mark on the features of the house and its surroundings.

Throughout her life Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor. Her daughter Princess Helena of the United Kingdom lived at the Lodge for over fifty years, presiding over elaborate re-building after a major fire in 1869 and extensive alterations in 1912. Lord FitzAlan, last British Viceroy of Ireland, was the last private person to be entrusted with the Lodge. It was in his time, at the Lodge in 1936, that the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, discussed the crisis over King Edward VIII's desire to marry Wallis Simpson with the king's secretary, talks which led to Edward's abdication of the crown a few weeks later. In 1947, the King made the Lodge available to the newly established St. Catharine's Foundation, later known as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Foundation of St Catharine's. Today the organisation is simply known as Cumberland Lodge. Cumberland Lodge today is an educational charity dedicated to initiating fresh debate on questions facing society. The grounds are not generally open to the public, but the house is continually holding conferences, open days and lectures.[24]

Due to the presence of ancient trees and ancient grasslands, Windsor Great Park is an important wildlife site in the UK, and is nationally important for its fungal diversity.[6] 250 rare species have been found in the park, some of which are confined exclusively to the park and occur nowhere else. Windsor Great Park is regarded as an important bolete site by mycologists,[26] and a few nationally rare species occur here, including Imperator rhodopurpureus, Rubroboletus legaliae and Butyriboletus fuscoroseus, although the latter of which has not been encountered for many years. Windsor Great Park is the only place in the UK where a confusing form of R.legaliae with entirely yellow pores occurs,[27] and is the type locality for Boletus immutatus, as suggested by Ainsworth et al. a variable colour morph of Neoboletus luridiformis with metabolic abnormalities, which occurs exclusively at Windsor Great Park and nowhere else in the UK, and has not been recorded in Europe as well.[27][28] Collection of fungi for consumption has been long forbidden in the park to safeguard the population of rare fungi, with significant sanctions in place if this law is ignored, much like with Epping Forest.[29] Other fungi which have been reported from the park include Boletus aereus, Gyroporus castaneus and six species of tooth fungi such as Hericium coralloides, a species protected by law in the UK. It is currently considered for inclusion in the SSSI register due to the diversity of fungi.[26]

The park has a healthy population of Red kite, which can be seen soaring all over the park on sunny days, and seeing and hearing Ring-necked parakeet is commonplace. Other birds recorded from the park include the nationally threatened Lesser spotted woodpecker and Mandarin duck.[30]