THE NEW FOREST EXPLORERS’ GUIDE
For those who want to know more

The New Forest
Located close to the south coast in a delightful corner of south-west Hampshire, the New Forest contains a magnificent, almost unrivalled variety of scenery.

Recently designated a National Park, it is unique in modern Britain, an ancient hunting ground whose character has survived almost intact into the 21st century.

Here, spread over 250 square kilometres (almost 100 square miles), extensive areas of ancient, unenclosed New Forest woodlands sprawl alongside more recent forestry inclosures; clear, gravel-bottomed streams flow across gorse-splattered heaths; and areas of grassland attract New Forest wildlife and commoners’ stock to feed.

The New Forest through the year
The New Forest is a wonderful place to visit and explore at all times of the year. Winter New Forest walks on crisp, frosty days are a special delight, whilst spring in the New Forest sometimes comes as early as February. Then, nature returns fully to life against a backdrop off golden yellow gorse and awakening ancient trees.

New Forest Walks Why not try one of our specially selected New Forest walks? Many start from New Forest village centres, and take walkers to places where New Forest wildlife is likely to be encountered, and where New Forest history can be re-lived. Many of the walks are quite short, and some are suitable for those with young children in buggies.

Summer brings warm New Forest days and heaths ablaze with heather, whilst autumn features spectacular New Forest woodland displays of gold, red and orange, and rutting deer that remind of the original purpose of the New Forest.

New Forest walks
There is marvellously unrestricted access to New Forest walks. Yes, mile-upon-mile of New Forest walks just wait to be explored, walks that take the visitor over wide open heathland spaces, and through woodland glades where overhanging, moss-clad boughs offer both shade and shelter.

New Forest cycling
New Forest cycling is an increasingly popular pastime that is catered for by an extensive network of cycleways, marked on Ordnance Survey maps as a succession of red dots.

New Forest history
The New Forest landscape owes much of its character to William the Conqueror who in the late-11th century set aside the New Forest as a Royal hunting ground, and called it Nova Foresta, which means New Forest.

	New Forest wildlife is abundant

Bronze Age barrows, though, dot the heaths, bearing witness to earlier occupation, whilst prominent medieval earthworks serve as ever-present reminders of Norman presence.

New Forest commoning traditions
In the New Forest, ponies, donkeys, cattle and autumnal pigs wander freely, continuing centuries-old New Forest commoning traditions. All are owned by New Forest commoners who have the right to put out stock on the open lands of the New Forest. Some may also take timber from New Forest woodlands.

New Forest wildlife
New Forest wildlife is of international importance. Four species of New Forest deer, for example, can regularly be seen – roe deer, red deer, fallow deer and sika deer. Butterflies are at times abundant, whilst an incredible 75% of Britain's dragonfly and damselfly species occur in the New Forest. During New Forest walks, look out also for the purple blooms of wild gladiolus that grace New Forest heathlands, but occur nowhere else in Britain.

	Dartford warblers are widespread on the New Forest heaths

New Forest birds
New Forest birds attract enthusiasts from far and wide. Tiny Dartford warblers, for example, are resident throughout the year on the New Forest heaths, whilst hobbys and nightjars visit the New Forest heaths only to breed. New Forest heathland winter visitors include strikingly marked great grey shrikes and fiercely predatory hen harriers.

Kingfishers regularly hunt along the New Forest streams, and hawfinches inhabit many of the New Forest woodlands where they live alongside breeding season redstarts and wood warblers, and year-round woodpeckers.

Listen, too, from March until July for the haunting cries of curlews and redshanks, New Forest birds that breed in company with snipe and lapwings around the bogs and valley mires.

 

	New Forest villages, such as Lyndhurst, offer modern amenities, but are also rich in history

New Forest villages
Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Burley, Lyndhurst and other New Forest villages are all rich in history, history often intrinsically linked with the old hunting traditions of the New Forest, but also of more recent date.

And of course, the New Forest villages offer all the amenities associated with modern living - shops of all descriptions, tea-rooms, pubs, restaurants, hotels and guest houses.
 
Gardens, such as Furzey Gardens and that at Exbury, are open to the public, whilst at Beaulieu, Palace House, the Abbey and National Motor Museum, and the old ship building centre at Buckler's Hard are popular visitor attractions.

The New Forest Explorers' Guide
Here within the New Forest Explorers' Guide, New Forest wildlife, landscapes, commoning traditions and history are examined in detail, whilst accompanying New Forest photographs and maps help bring to life this ancient landscape.

This, then, is a web site for the curious New Forest resident and visitor, for those who want to know more about the New Forest, who want to better understand and appreciate the New Forest, and observe New Forest wildlife.