New Forest Walks

New Forest Walks

Bed and Breakfast Lyndhurst

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Here are a few walks that I enjoy, mostly under an hour's leisurely pace.

WALK 1 On the road between Emery Down and Bolderwood is the Portuguese Memorial. This old fireplace is what remains of an encampment built by soldiers of a Portuguese Army battalion, in the Great War of 1914 - 1918. The soldiers were based in the Forest, helping to produce timber for the war effort.

Just past this monument on the left hand side is a gate entrance to the forest walk.

View PDF file of route

Go through the gate and at the first fork bear left along the gravel track. This takes you through tall fir trees for about half a mile. At the end of this track you are at the New Forest Reptilliary, which is open to the public and has access by road from the A35, Lyndhurst / Bournemouth Road. Have a look around the Reptile Centre, which is free if you walk, but £2 a car for the car park. Here you will see live examples of the toads, snakes and lizards that live in the Forest.

Then turn back and 100 yards along the gravel track take the left fork along a grass track. Follow this to the end and turn right along a gravel track again. Follow this track back to the road entrance from where you started.

The walk used to have many posts with various snake markings on them. The New Forest does have some wild adders, but it is unusual to see one. I have only ever seen dead ones, or the ones shown here on these posts!

Over the winter of 2006 / 2007 mindless vandels knocked down two of the snake posts. The Forestry Commission have removed the remainder and replaced them with red marker posts. I think this was a terrible shame. However, they have now (2010) added quiz boards on the walk, where you are invited to guess whether the picture shown is part of a bird or reptile. (But they don't tell you the answer, which makes it a bit pointless!)

The walk is straightforward, fairly flat, and dry under foot. It takes around twenty minutes at an amble.

An alternative, and longer walk from the entrance gate, is to bear right at the first fork and to follow the gravel path all the way round until it comes back to itself. This walk is through pleasant forest woodland of beech and oak trees and takes around an hour. (see dotted lines on .pdf map)

Another attraction, alongside a nearby road, are a family of wild peacocks that I discovered just by chance. So far I have seen two peacocks. However, they are very nervous and don't allow you to get too close. I have never heard of wild peacocks before - I thought they were now only found in stately homes and suchlike!

The Fox

There are always things to see on a forest walk. A fox is a rarity and it was just as unusual to have my camera with me on this walk!

The picture below shows how close you can get to deer on this walk - as long as they don't see you first!

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Meg and a Deer

New Forest Walk

Red Deer

This picture of Red Deer was taken by a gentleman called Malcolm Pittock, who found this walk on my web-site and kindly sent me his picture that he took on the longer walk, mentioned above.

Deer are common in the Forest, but unless you have infinite patience, a zoom lens and a tripod (which I never take with me!) it is difficult to get a picture before you are spotted and the deer disappears into the woods.

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	WALK 1 On the road between Emery Down and Bolderwood is the Portuguese Memorial. This old fireplace is what remains of an encampment built by soldiers of a Portuguese Army battalion, in the Great War of 1914 - 1918. The soldiers were based in the Forest, helping to produce timber for the war effort. Just past this monument on the left hand side is a gate entrance to the forest walk. View PDF file of route
Go through the gate and at the first fork bear left along the gravel track. This takes you through tall fir trees for about half a mile. At the end of this track you are at the New Forest Reptilliary, which is open to the public and has access by road from the A35, Lyndhurst / Bournemouth Road. Have a look around the Reptile Centre, which is free if you walk, but £2 a car for the car park. Here you will see live examples of the toads, snakes and lizards that live in the Forest.
	Then turn back and 100 yards along the gravel track take the left fork along a grass track. Follow this to the end and turn right along a gravel track again. Follow this track back to the road entrance from where you started.

	The walk used to have many posts with various snake markings on them. The New Forest does have some wild adders, but it is unusual to see one. I have only ever seen dead ones, or the ones shown here on these posts!
Over the winter of 2006 / 2007 mindless vandels knocked down two of the snake posts. The Forestry Commission have removed the remainder and replaced them with red marker posts. I think this was a terrible shame. However, they have now (2010) added quiz boards on the walk, where you are invited to guess whether the picture shown is part of a bird or reptile. (But they don't tell you the answer, which makes it a bit pointless!) The walk is straightforward, fairly flat, and dry under foot. It takes around twenty minutes at an amble.
	An alternative, and longer walk from the entrance gate, is to bear right at the first fork and to follow the gravel path all the way round until it comes back to itself. This walk is through pleasant forest woodland of beech and oak trees and takes around an hour. (see dotted lines on .pdf map)
Another attraction, alongside a nearby road, are a family of wild peacocks that I discovered just by chance. So far I have seen two peacocks. However, they are very nervous and don't allow you to get too close. I have never heard of wild peacocks before - I thought they were now only found in stately homes and suchlike!
	There are always things to see on a forest walk. A fox is a rarity and it was just as unusual to have my camera with me on this walk! The picture below shows how close you can get to deer on this walk - as long as they don't see you first!
Walk 1 2 3 4 5 >> NEXT WALK >>