Vacations Blog

An absolute must see place to visit in the New Forest is 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.

Just inside the entrance to Bolderwood there is a marvellous woodland area with some picnic and barbeque facilities. You will also find a Forest Ranger manned information centre here which is great for getting advice and answering questions you might have about the forest. There are also some great examples of some of the foliage etc. that you will find during your visit to Bolderwood.

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.

An alternative stroll through this beautiful ancient woodland area will show you many more varieties of trees such as Chestnut, Beech, Oak and Norway Spruce. This walk is called the Radnor Trail and will also bring you about to the marvellous Deer Sanctuary and the viewing platform, if you haven’t spotted any Deer already during your walk.

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.

During your visit to Bolderwood you must take the time to drive through Bolderwoods Ornamental Drive. This is at its most beautiful during the summer and its windy narrow road takes you through the tremendous ancient woodland. It forms part of the 100 mile New Forest Cycling network so there are many cyclists along this route and because of its beauty the drive does become quite busy, so please be careful.

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.