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New Forest Walks - Walks from Lyndhurst

This walk crosses Lyndhurst’s old Race Ground, skirts the golf course, passes through majestic woodlands and goes over heathland.

A quiet path through Rushpole Wood
A quiet path through Rushpole Wood

Overview

After leaving the village centre, the walk crosses an extensive area of grassland that is a magnet for commoners’ ponies and cattle. Until around 1880 it was the site of Lyndhurst’s race ground - the adjacent road is still called Racecourse View. And from 1922 until after the Second World War, the same site played host to the New Forest pony sales and accompanying fair.

The route skirts a golf course, which was opened in 1890 on part of the race ground, before passing through a narrow band of alder carr and crossing an attractive area of heathland. Ancient, unenclosed woodlands are a significant feature of the area - they are primarily encountered later in the walk - and so are broad-leaved woodland inclosures and coniferous inclosures.

Indeed, the creation of woodland inclosures in the 18th and 19th centuries has had a profound effect on much of the New Forest. Such landscape changes have, though, had many years to become established and now seem almost a part of the natural order of things.

Listen along the way for the year-round ringing calls of nuthatches as these dapper creatures clamber up trunks and boughs. Great spotted and green woodpeckers are also prominently present, whilst lesser spotted woodpeckers tend to be far less conspicuous. Tiny goldcrests and occasional firecrests seem to be particularly drawn to areas of conifers, whilst buzzards are increasingly seen and heard soaring above the tree tops.

In season, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies haunt the woodlands, heathlands and wetter places; whilst from late summer through to early winter, trout spawn in New Forest streams, such as Bartley Water, contributing to plentiful supplies of food for breeding season kingfishers.

Extravagantly shaped autumnal fungi are likely to be abundantly present in the woods, whilst fallow deer and roe deer can regularly be seen.

The walk
Walk distance:
9 kilometres (5½ miles).
Start:
Lyndhurst village centre or the roadside lay-by opposite what used to be the Magistrates Court and Police Station.
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.
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.
The walk route
Route map

Parking

There is a large 'Pay and Display' car park in the centre of Lyndhurst. Alternatively, roadside parking is available in a lay-by opposite what used to be the Magistrates Court and Police Station.

Walk route directions

1. Leave the village centre along Romsey Road – this is the road that enters the village at the traffic lights situated towards the top of the High Street.

Pass King’s Close on the left and a thatched cottage, also on the left – this was once the site of a turnpike toll gate used by the Salisbury, Landford, Ower and Eling Turnpike Trust.

Turnpike Cottage
Turnpike Cottage

Pass on the left a road immediately beyond the thatched cottage – Forest Gardens - then Gales Green, and eventually a black and white building called Turnpike Cottage – the site of another turnpike toll gate.

(Opposite, just beyond the last houses, can be seen the extensive grasslands of Lyndhurst’s old race ground).

Access to the race ground grassland is through a gate a short distance along Racecourse View, which is the road on the right beside the Forest Point Hotel.

Alternative access is available at the far end of the roadside lay-by opposite what used to be the Magistrates Court and Police Station.

2. From the Racecourse View gate, go half-left towards the end of a drainage channel mid-way over the grassland.

(Look out here in May for magnificent displays of yellow iris in the channel, including many white-flowered examples).

A path running beside the roadside fence leads to the lay-by entrance.

3. From there, walk over the grassland towards a narrow gap in the trees, almost mid-way between the main road and a birch-clad hillock at the base of which is a bench.

Pass through the gap in the trees and skirt the golf course – here, amongst the short grass, can be found patches of heather, cross-leaved heath, tormentil and bog myrtle that betray the open-Forest origins of the course.

4. Reach a strip of primarily alder woodland that has grown up beside a narrow stream, the Beaulieu River whose source is just across the main road, not far from the police station. Turn right to follow the woodland edge for around 300 metres, before turning left along a gravel track through the woodland and across the stream at a small bridge.

(Many of the alders here show evidence of past coppicing and pollarding, a reminder that alder timber was a valuable resource that was often burnt to produce charcoal for use in the manufacture of gas mask filters).

5. Emerge onto a narrow stretch of very damp heathland. Continue straight on for a short distance, and then turn left alongside the ancient, broad-leaved woodlands around Fair Cross - this name probably relates to fairs associated with the old race ground or later pony sales. Follow this path on around the woodland edge.

6. As the way ahead opens out onto extensive heathlands, cross a junction of tracks and continue straight on across the heath.

Follow the path as it bears gently right between another narrow band of woodland and the more extensive woodlands of Fox Hill.

Cross-leaved heath brightens Gutter Heath
Cross-leaved heath brightens Gutter Heath

7. The path eventually enters these woodlands, and reaches a fork. Take the left-hand branch and continue through the wood to Gutter Heath – a gutter in the New Forest is a small stream, and here the stream can be found flowing through the woodland on the opposite side of the heath.

8. Follow the heathland edge round to the left.

(Notice how in the past the heath here has been burnt to clear invasive scrub and encourage fresh heather growth. Occasional patches of tormentil and cross-leaved heath are present, together with small areas of bracken that managed to escape the fire).

9. In the opposite corner of the heath, follow the path as it re-enters the woodlands. At the first ‘T’ junction, turn right, downhill to reach a bridge across Bartley Water, a sharply meandering stream cut deep into the woodland floor.

Cross at the bridge, and continue on for a short distance before going through a gate into Furzy Lawn Inclosure. When the path meets a wider ride, go left to reach a gravel track.

10. Turn right along the gravel track and pass on either side, areas of regenerating woodland interspersed with young conifers and occasional mature trees.

(Along the ride-side, stunted gorse is present, and so are heather, bell heather, tormentil, self-heal and greater birdsfoot trefoil. Despite an absence of brambles – ideal nectar sources - butterflies such as ringlets, meadow browns, large whites, large and small skippers, and gatekeepers can be seen along here on bright, summer days).

Continue straight ahead at the first cross-roads.

11. Turn right at the next crossroads, and then immediately right again to walk for a short way alongside another narrow stream known as Dogben Gutter.

(Here, ancient broadleaved trees border the path, giants spared the axe when Furzy Lawn and Brockishill Inclosures were first created).

Turn right again when the main, inclosure track is met. Pass a track on the left, and go on through fairly open, coniferous woodland. The Forestry Commission has been busy here – conifers have been thinned out to allow those that remain to grow on.

12. Leave the inclosure through a gate, and cross a small, at times very damp, lawn that has Marsh St. John’s Wort growing in the wetter places.

Follow the path as it leaves the lawn in the far right-hand corner, and enter a magnificent stretch of ancient, unenclosed woodland between Great Stubby Hat and Little Stubby Hat.

(In the New Forest, clumps of trees were often known as ‘hats’. John Wise writing in the mid-19th century suggested that the term had its origin in the high-crowned hats worn by 16th and 17th century Puritans).

Continue straight ahead at the first crossroads.

13. Eventually leave the wood and cross through the centre of a quite extensive stretch of damp grassland. Cross a narrow water channel and follow the path half-left / straight ahead as it enters ancient, unenclosed woodland at Yewtree Hill.

After a few hundred metres, go through a gate into the coniferous woodland of Busketts Lawn Inclosure, and after a further short distance turn right to follow a gravelled cycle track.

(There’s a reasonable show of brambles along here, offering the prospect of summer butterflies such as silver-washed fritillaries).

Bartley Water within Busketts Lawn Inclosure
Bartley Water within Busketts Lawn Inclosure

14. At another bridge, cross Bartley Water again. Pass a small area of impressive, ornamental conifers on either side of the path; go straight on at a crossroads, and straight on again where the cycle track bears round to the left.

(Notice the area of thinned oaks on the right – felling has taken place to give those that remain more room to grow. Much of the felled timber is sold at autumnal auctions).

15. Go through a gate leading out of the inclosure into ancient, unenclosed woodland, and continue on at Redbridge Hill as the path, inevitably, climbs uphill.

(Here, and beyond, in Rushpole Wood, many fine old oak and beech trees are evident, but to add variety, there is also some relatively new growth).

At the top of the hill, go straight on at a crossroad of tracks, and eventually, close to Whitebridge Hill, cross a modest-sized area of heath and grassland overgrown with bracken, and with some invading oak and birch.

Continue on through a dismantled fence line – the gate posts are still standing but there’s no gate and no fence – into a small, mixed broadleaved and coniferous inclosure.

16. Reach a crossroad of tracks and turn right to walk along a relatively wide, grassy ride. After a couple of hundred yards, follow the ride left, ignoring here the path straight ahead into the woods. Continue along the ride as it again swings left at a very indistinct crossroads.

Almost immediately, pass a wide, grassy ride on the left and cross another wide, grassy ride. Drop down through a narrow section of alder carr and go across a small bridge over a narrow stream flowing through the centre. This is again the Beaulieu River, and the alder carr is a continuation of that encountered earlier on the walk.

17. Lyndhurst golf course is on the other side of the alder carr. Turn left to follow its edge round as far as the clubhouse.

18. Reach the far end of the clubhouse car park, turn left and enter the adjacent straggle of woodland.

(Here can be found two parallel earthen banks 15 metres (50 feet), or so, apart, running almost from the A35 Ashurst road to the A337 Cadnam road. It’s tempting to imagine that these once bordered the race course, but perhaps sad to say, they're simply spoil heaps thrown up many years ago when the adjacent, now entirely natural-looking, drainage channels were dug out).

Turn right and proceed straight ahead between the two banks until a ‘T’ junction of tracks is reached.

19. To return to Racecourse View, turn left, cross an almost adjacent small bridge, and the gate alongside the road will be in sight across the grassland.

20. To reach the roadside lay-by, turn right at the ‘T’ junction of tracks, and then immediately left to follow woodland edge for a short distance, before crossing the grassland close to the road.


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Content produced by Andrew Walmsley
Content produced by Andrew Walmsley