New Forest Walks - Walks from Lyndhurst
This walk crosses White Moor and Matley Heath, goes through Mallard Wood and follows the Beaulieu River at Longwater Lawn.
Overview
On this walk, absorb the atmosphere of White Moor, an area with a fascinating military history. Here Victorian rifle range butts - earthen banks in front of which were placed targets - remain concealed amongst the trees, whilst engulfed in heather are the remains of trenches used during military manoeuvres prior to and during the First World War.
Follow in the footsteps of ancient travellers by walking for a while close to the old Salt Way, a route inland from coastal salterns around Lymington. Look out also for the Park Pale, a medieval earthen bank that once surrounded a deer park dating back to at least the 13th century.
Notice, too, a Bronze Age barrow visible on the heath, the last resting place of a person, or persons, who inhabited this area 3,500 years, or so, ago.
Enjoy on the heathland, the yellow flowers of gorse, and the cross-leaved heath, bell heather and common heather that blooms from June to September. Watch also for Dartford warblers, woodlarks and linnets, and on warm summer evenings, listen at dusk for the churring calls of nightjars.
In the warmer months, butterflies, too, brighten the landscape. Look out on the heaths for nationally rare silver-studded blues in July and early August, and graylings from mid-July to early September.
Adjacent wetland areas sometimes hold breeding season curlews that announce presence with mournful, plaintiff cries and undulating courtship flights, whilst lapwings beat the air in frenzied display, declaring territory and driving off intruders.
Marvel at the fine old oaks and beeches of Mallard Wood and Matley Wood, ancient, unenclosed woodlands that are the haunt of spring-time redstarts and occasional wood warblers, and a year-round throng of resident birds.
Look out also amongst the woodland bracken for movements that might betray a deer as it slips quietly away, keen to keep from sight - here fallow deer are common and widespread, both on the heaths and in the woods, whilst roe deer, too, might also be seen.
And walk beside the Beaulieu River, a delightful New Forest stream, at Longwater Lawn. In spring and summer, the river is often little more than a narrow ribbon of water, bedecked with water crowfoot, but after rain it is a more substantial water-course. In late-summer, autumn and winter, trout come here to spawn, whilst in their own season, brightly coloured dragonflies and damselflies dart and dance around the water’s edge.
8.5 kilometres (5¼ miles) from Lyndhurst village centre. 7 kilometres (4½ miles) from the Bolton’s Bench car park.
Start:
Lyndhurst village centre, or from the Forestry Commission car park close to Bolton’s Bench.
Terrain:
Mainly on level ground, but with a small number of gentle gradients; and mostly firm, but as sections can at times be wet and muddy, strong boots are recommended. Parts of the route are a little 'off the beaten track', so access to an Ordnance Survey map might be helpful - Explorer OL22.
Refreshments:
Pubs in Lyndhurst include The Fox and Hounds, The Stag, The Mailmans Arms and The Waterloo Arms. The Crown Hotel, too, serves food and drinks, and there are also numerous tearooms, cafes and restaurants.
New Forest Tour bus route:
Yes - summer only.
Parking
There is a large 'Pay and Display' car park in the centre of Lyndhurst and Forestry Commission car parks close to Bolton's Bench.
Walk route directions
From Lyndhurst village centre
1. Walk straight down the High Street, ignoring opposite the garage the right turn into Gosport Lane - sign-posted Lymington and Brockenhurst. Pass on the right the Lyndhurst Park Hotel, and almost immediately turn right following the road sign for Beaulieu. Then immediately turn left at the Forestry Commission 'Bolton’s Bench' sign.
2. Pass on the left two Forestry Commission car parks and on the right, the hillock of Bolton’s Bench. Continue along this tarmac road, and eventually turn left along the road leading to the village cemetery - another Forestry Commission car park lies ahead, on the right.
(Overlooking White Moor, the cemetery was opened in the mid-1880s when the parish church graveyard became full. Just inside the main gate is the tomb of John Wise, mid-19th century chronicler of New Forest landscape and scenery. Around the cemetery, mature conifers, a range of broad-leaved trees and extensive patches of brambles form a small copse, a haven for many species of birds and butterflies that are not often found on the adjacent, open heathland).
3. Reach the cemetery entrance and turn left alongside the wall. After a few paces, turn right to continue parallel to the wall until it again bears right. Turn left here along a grassy path bordered by bracken and brambles.
After a short distance, reach an open area of undulating ground overlooked by a bench – this is the site of an old gravel pit. Pass behind the bench, go down a slight incline and just beyond, turn right at a ‘T’ junction of narrow tracks.
Follow beside a patch of bracken on the right, which runs alongside a quite substantial overgrown trench obscured in summer by vegetation.
(Here, an adjacent, wasted earthen bank suggests deliberate excavation rather than creation by the passage of feet and hooves. The trench may have been associated with the nearby disused gravel pit, or the village rubbish tip that until the early years of the 20th century was incongruously located close to the cemetery. But more likely it is linked to the military use of White Moor, and was used, maybe, to simulate a war-time trench).
4. Follow the path beside bracken and trench, reach the end of the cemetery-edge woodland, and go straight across at a crossroad of grassy tracks. Continue straight ahead beside a far shallower trench on the right.
Proceed along the path as it swings round to the left a short distance beyond a small clump of Scots pines and birches. After around 150 metres, reach a junction of multiple grassy tracks. Take the second exit on the right, heading for the edge of Mallard Wood.
(Notice on the right here, close to the path, two low ridges separated by a narrow area of lower lying ground – more evidence, maybe, of military manoeuvres).
5. Follow the path into the bracken adjacent to a strip of woodland on the left, and on into Mallard Wood.
(Here, a 75-100 metre detour to the left, through the bracken, will lead to the fledgling Beaulieu River as it meanders through the wood not far from its source at nearby Pikeshill - the river here is only 1 metre, or so, wide).
6. Back on the main route, continue through the wood, past on the right another stretch of heathland - the view of this in summer is obscured by bracken and other vegetation.
(Note the browse lines here on the hollies – the work of commoners’ stock, and deer. Note, too, the relatively recently pollarded hollies – trees cut of at around head height to encourage re-growth).
Keep to this path as it bears to the right, take the next right fork close to the edge of the wood, and emerge onto the open heathland. Follow the path diagonally across the heath.
(Notice to the right amongst the trees, Row Hill - it was here a century ago that the White Moor, Volunteer’s Rifle Range terminated).
7. At the far side of the heath, cross a narrow side-stream at a small bridge and immediately turn left then right to follow a narrow path beside the Beaulieu River as it passes through a small copse. (Do not cross the river at this point).
Emerge onto an area of open grassland and, after a short distance, reach a small bridge over the still very narrow Beaulieu River, where set into the river bank is a parish boundary stone.
(This is Longwater Lawn, whilst across the bridge is the heathland once known as Old Ralph Heath).
Cross the bridge and turn right to follow the riverbank.
(When close to the second group of streamside alders, those with good eyesight or a pair of binoculars may notice on the heath across the river a small, rounded hillock on the first ridge a distance away. Sitting above the surrounding low-lying land, this is a Bronze Age burial mound, alone in the midst of the heath.
Look out also along here for heathland drainage channels, and isolated meanders largely cut off from the main flow (such as that by the alder group already mentioned) but that fill with water after rain and when river levels are high. Both are evidence of old attempts to reduce flooding, and thereby improve the grazing for commoners’ stock. Note: A 2011 project has returned the river to its pre-19th century course by reinstating many / all of the previously isolated meanders).
Reach a small copse at the far end of the lawn, and follow the edge of the copse round to the left. Go right at a 'T' junction of narrow tracks, and after a short distance, re-cross the river at another small bridge.
8. Follow the path directly away from the river. Almost immediately, at the heathland edge, ignore a narrow, indistinct track leading off half-to-the-right, and continue straight ahead towards Matley Wood.
9. Enter the corner of the wood, and after a short distance, at a crossroad of tracks, take the right turn onto the open heath. At the next fork - which is reached almost immediately - continue straight ahead, ignoring here a path to the left.
Follow this path until another fork is reached – where the Matley Wood woodland edge swings away to the left. Take the right fork leading towards the Beaulieu road.
10. On reaching the road, follow the path to the right - it is initially close to the road, but it later bears away a little to the right.
(Look out along here for the distant church spire at Lyndhurst, a beacon amongst the trees when most of the village is hidden from sight, and slightly to the right, high on its hill overlooking Lyndhurst, the whitened walls of Northerwood House).
11. After 1 kilometre, this path is joined by one coming up from Longwater Lawn on the route of the old Salt Way, whilst a short detour to the left here will reveal the wasted bank and ditch of the Park Pale.
From this point, follow the main path back to the car park, and beyond, Lyndhurst village centre.
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