New Forest

Welcome to the Strolling Guide to the New Forest

Here you will find general articles about the New Forest, specific details of various places of interest, and suggestions for short strolls in some of the most attractive areas.

The New Forest proper (the red, green and yellow areas on the map) covers some 34,600 hectares (93,000 acres or 143 square miles) of south-west Hampshire. Of this, just over 19,000 hectares (45,500 acres) is unenclosed common grazing, the largest unenclosed area in lowland southern England.

In June 2004, the Government announced that the New Forest would become England's first new National Park for 15 years and this came into effect from March 2005.

The boundries are shown as the brown areas on the map, and included, or border on to a number of interesting spots, such as Lymington, Lepe, Hythe, Breamore , Fordingbridge and Ringwood.

The additional areas involved consists mainly of farmland and private forestry plantations, with very little unenclosed land.

To make things easy to find I have split the forest up into the following sections and included any places of interest in or near the National Park where appropriate:

• The Forest

  Go to the New Forest General Articles Page

  General articles on the forest, its flora and fauna, its history and some of the unusual and interesting things to be found in it.

• The North

  Go to the New Forest Northern Area Page

  The area to the north of the busy A31 is generally quieter and less well known than the other two areas. It has few roads or villages and vast undulating heathlands.

• The South West

  Go to the New Forest South Western Area Page

  Probably the most popular part of the forest, with the delights of Bolderwood , Burley and Minstead attracting many visitors. Brockenhurst, which lies on the border, the A337, is included in this section.

• The South East

  Go to the New Forest South Eastern Area Page

  Lyndhurst, the 'capital' of the forest is covered in this section, which is also home to a number of major tourist attractions, such as Beaulieu, Bucklers Hard and Exbury Gardens as well as some less well known ones. Along the southern edge, the forest reaches the coast although access is very restricted.

• Links

  Go to the New Forest Links and Books Page

  Links and References relating to the New Forest in general