New Forest

The New Forest has a rare, beautiful, yet fragile landscape made up of woodland, heathland and river and coastal habitats. It was created by William the Conqueror to chase the deer and wild boar. Some of the park’s oaks are around 600 years old, part of the greatest concentration of ancient and veteran trees in northern Europe. The heather-clad heathland makes way to grassland and waterlogged bogs, or mires. Thousands of ponies, cattle, sheep, donkeys and pigs are put out to graze it. There is a rich wildlife including the Dartford warbler, sand lizard and smooth snake. The wetlands support unusual plant life.

The New Forest’s coastline – on the Solent – is a mix of shingle, saltmarsh, lagoons and mudflats. There is a network of footpaths, bridleways and cycle tracks giving access to 120 square miles of park land, which has Bronze and Iron Age sites and hamlets of cob and thatch cottages. Lyndhurst, with its Queen’s House, is the ancient capital of the New Forest, while Brockenhurst has the oldest of the forest’s many medieval churches. Visit Beaulieu, Buckler’s Hard, on the Beaulieu River, and Lepe Country Park.