The New Forest – Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary

March 2nd, 2009 Posted in Travel and Leisure

A must see when you visit the New Forest is a trip to Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary and the Ornamental Drive. A beautiful drive to get here and a trip that is worth a whole day or to come back again and again. A very happy day can easily be spent here for the whole family.

In case you didn’t know the New Forest National park was once the hunting grounds of the former kings of England, and some of the ancient traditions are still practiced today by the commoners.

The car park at Bolderwood gets really busy, so on a really lovely sunny day, plan your trip early to avoid disappointment. Adjacent to the car park and the woodland there is an open green which is great for having your picnic and a family/friendly game of rounders. You can get a delicious forest ice cream from the resident ice cream van here.

In the woody area at the entrance to Bolderwood you will find picnic tables, portable barbeque facilities and toilets. Here you will also find an information centre, often manned by a friendly forest ranger who can help with questions about the forest. Children and adults can have some fun seeing how many questions they can answer from the quiz!

From the Woodland area of Bolderwood you can choose from a selection of walks. One of the walks is the Bolderwood Deer Watch Trail. Throughout the walk you might spot the odd deer in the forest among the trees if you are quiet but if you miss them then you are sure to see some deer in the nearby sanctuary. Here there is a viewing platform and the deer here are a little more used to human prescence so you are bound to catch a glimpse of some deer grazing.

If you decide to take the Jubilee Walk, this is a about half a mile and will take you through the Bolderwood Arboretum. This is a fabulous display of a range of trees which began as far back as the 1800’s. Unfortunately, because of the high winds we had here in 1987 and further more in 1991, many of the great trees were destroyed. A project of ongoing planting has since been put in place to return this area to its original beauty.

The Radnor Trail is another walk which will take you through this ancient beautiful forest, during this walk you might spot the odd Deer grazing in the distance hiding amongst the many more variety of tree species. There are many suitably placed benches to take a rest for a while and to admire the beauty of the forest surrounding you.

The New Forest Cycling network which takes you through the many finest parts of the forest and links many of the major villages includes Bolderwood. Cycling through Bolderwood which includes the Ornamental drive is beautiful and can take about 3 and one half hours.

Bolderwood Ornamental drive must be visited either on the way in to Bolderwood or on the way out. The ornamental drive takes you though this marvellous picturesque route around Bolderwood and during the summer it is at its most beautiful. This is a busy fairly narrow windy road however and many hikers and cyclists as well as the wildlife use it too, so take care !

If you are looking for friendly local accommodation visit New Forest cottages for local self catering holiday cottages or New Forest hotels for luxury and hotel accommodation.