New Forest

Welcome to the Strolling Guide to the New Forest

Or should that be the Strolling Guide to the New Forest and South West Hampshire as this section now covers an area that extends well to the west of the forest itself.

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.

Back in June 2004, the Government announced that the New Forest would become a National Park, England's first new park for 15 years. This came into effect from March 2005.

The boundries of the National Park 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, Fordingbridge and Ringwood. The additional areas involved consists mainly of farmland and private forestry plantations, with very little unenclosed land.

• General Articles

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

  Go to the General Articles Page
• Northern Area

  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. Breamore is one of the few well known attractions.

  To the west of the New Forest up to the Hampshire county boundary is an area that includes part of Cranbourne Chase which, in landscape terms, has more in common with South Wiltshire and East Dorset and, just to confuse matters further, a small area of the extreme north of the forest is in Wiltshire.

  Go to the Northern Area Page
• South Western Area

  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.

  Go to the South Western Area Page
• South Eastern Area

  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.

  Go to the South Eastern Area Page
• New Forest Links and Books Links and References relating to the New Forest in general.
  Go to the New Forest Links and Books Page