A straightforward walk. It can be very monotonous walking on wide gravel paths for much of the walk not helped by one of the roads being used as a diversion for road traffic due to the New Forest County show.
Not sure of the status of the Crown Stirrup as it was shut on a Tues lunchtime despite being advertised as open with signs of looking a bit derelict. The later pub (Oak Inn) was doing lunches though.
Anonymous
Sep-21
We did this main walk early August 2021 after heavy rain, starting just before 10am. Used the map and the PDF instructions and occasionally the GPX file. The instructions were fine.
This is an easy and short walk for those that like wooded areas, ending by wandering through the pleasant high street of Brockenhurst. Encounters with the ponies were pleasing.
Some of the paths were quite muddy due to recent rains. The walks through the wooded areas are often on gravel tracks shared with cyclists which we did not mind. Reached the Crown Stirrup pub at Clayhill for lunch by 12:30, in sunshine, and had a drink in their pleasant garden before lunching indoors on tasty foods supposedly mostly local produce that we liked. My first taste of bacon jam and facon jam, need to get out more perhaps.
m&b
Anonymous
Apr-17
Just a note - we got to the Oak Inn at 14:35 on a Friday (we were cutting it fine, but the instructions said food served til 3). They said that last food orders were at 14:30 and that the entire pub closed at 15:00. There aren't any other options around (Crown Stirrup was closed for refurb, supposedly open early April) so it's worth correcting the listing.
Excellent route otherwise. One final point - where it says "Follow Balmer Lawn Road in an easterly direction for 400 m with the Balmer Lawn Hotel on your left. Where the road begins to bend left and a track continues straight..." the left bend is barely noticeable, whereas the straight track peels off a 90 degree right turn. We continued walking for a bit, waiting for a substantial left bend. It may be worth mentioning the big right turn.
Anonymous
Aug-14
12 August 2014. I did this walk to-day as I have been unable to go when it has been posted.as an SWC walk. At the risk of boring people to death yet again about the benefits of GPS allied to on-line OS maps (Anquet maps and Outdoor Map Navigator (OMN) app) then this is one walk where it really works well. I quickly got fed up of the hard, wide cycle paths and the troops of cyclists and veered off these to use grassy tracks and paths through the woods, essentially going in the same general direction as the cycle routes but enjoying the peace and quiet. I ended up walking further but it was well worth the effort. The long straight path at the end across Black Knowl has signs clearly saying no cycling but there they all are merrily pounding along it oblivious to the damage they are doing!!
Brockenhurst village is an end of walk paradise for refreshments; you could develop a serious cake habit if you lingered too long here.
PeteB
Anonymous
Aug-14
At time of writing, Rosie Lea's serves a very good well-presented cream tea and delicious cakes. The scones are very large, fresh and light served with clotted cream and jam, and the tea is served on traditional crockery for £4.50 in total for one.
I would add a pointer to the Commonwealth first world War cemetery and memorial (part of a larger cemetery) as a place to visit at the end of the walk. It is a small cemetery but I am not aware of other war cemeteries in the South East of England.
Anonymous
May-14
I did this walk independently on 5/5/2014 and found the directions to be generally fine but here's a few suggestions, all relating to the 2nd section, Balmer Lawn to Clayhill.
1st paragraph - surely Balmer Lawn Road bends sharply to the RIGHT, not to the left at the point where you leave it. You then aim for the footbridge a short distance to the right of a small pond (not the bridge further to the right), for the benefit of those without compasses.
2nd paragraph - take the path which is sharply to the right and uphill. This brings you out on the gravel track at post 274.
Good walk - the gravel paths were a bit hard on the feet, but otherwise navigation would have been hard!
Mike
Anonymous
May-13
We felt it was too difficult to describe the afternoon route on minor paths so we have revised the section, Bank To Knowl. This does mean you back track a bit after lunch but we hope it is easier to follow and you should be able to enjoy the forest rather than worry about interpreting the instructions.
Anonymous
Oct-12
I echo MG's thanks and suspect I too would have floundered without directions. One comment I heard was that it was a pity to pass so close to Lyndhurst and not visit it. (Not having been there before I don't know whether it was a pity or not but perhaps an optional detour could be incorporated/suggested.)
Bits where I felt things werent going to plan were....
- shortly before the gate to the Inclosure there seemed to be a choice of going left or right this not mentioned - had to get the compass out to work out to veer right.
- I had the same feeling as MG about the gate and the broad green track though opinions were divided on this. I think its something to do with orientation changing as you approach the gate.
- When the post numbers stopped adding up we thought we had gone off piste but were probably still on track. The compass and map provided reassurance.
Anonymous
Oct-12
One other thing I forgot on the previous list:
Clayhill to Bank
Para 2, sentence 2: replace 'a wide gravel track joins from the left' with you reach a T-junction with a wide gravel track and turn right'.
Also in the previous feedback the last sentence was cut and should say:
I was very grateful for the detailed directions as I would not have been confident enough to do this as a map-led walk.
MG
Anonymous
Sep-12
After doing the walk today 30 September and bearing in mind that it's had only 1 walk check so far, these are my suggestions, recognising that some are very minor:
Brockenhurst Stn to Balmer Lawn
Para 1, sentence 3: Suggest change to 'Stay on the main road going N, passing the Snakecatcher and then the Rose & Crown on the right.'
Para 2, last sentence: Omit 'just before the 30mph sign' as you turn left about 10m after going through the gate and the 30mph sign is about 25m further ahead (distances from memory)so confusing.
Clayhill to Bank
Para 1, sentence 3: Name of school is Priory Coxlease not Coxlease.
Bank to Black Knowl
Para 1, sentence 2: You come to the sign for Gritnam rather than a visible settlement.
Para 1, sentence 3: It would be helpful to give an idea of the distance from that point (the Gritnam sign) to the turn off as it seemed a long way (but as not realising this at the beginning, I didn't start estimating it).
Para 1, last sentence: 'ignoring y off' should presumably be 'ignoring all turnings off'.
Para 2, sentence 1: Full stop instead of comma at end (I said some of this is very minor!).
Para 2, sentence 2: When you go through the gate the broad green track is ahead so it would be clearer to say 'Take the left path' or 'Fork left'.
Para 2, sentence 2: I didn't see a track from the left after 100m so this seemed to be a red herring. The marker at the x-path is number 256 not 251.
Para 2, end of last sentence should be: 'in 50m you pass marker post 257 on your left and after a further 50m at marker post 258 ... follow the cycle trail as it turns sharply to the right and goes through another gate.'
Para 3, sentence 1: after the gate 'go ahead' instead of 'turn left'.
Para 3, sentence 2:at marker post 264 'turn left' instead of 'half left'; there is a half left option but it doesn't lead to the straight gravel path.
I was very grateful for the detailed directions as I would not have been confident enough to do this as a map-
A straightforward walk. It can be very monotonous walking on wide gravel paths for much of the walk not helped by one of the roads being used as a diversion for road traffic due to the New Forest County show.
Not sure of the status of the Crown Stirrup as it was shut on a Tues lunchtime despite being advertised as open with signs of looking a bit derelict. The later pub (Oak Inn) was doing lunches though.
We did this main walk early August 2021 after heavy rain, starting just before 10am. Used the map and the PDF instructions and occasionally the GPX file. The instructions were fine.
This is an easy and short walk for those that like wooded areas, ending by wandering through the pleasant high street of Brockenhurst. Encounters with the ponies were pleasing.
Some of the paths were quite muddy due to recent rains. The walks through the wooded areas are often on gravel tracks shared with cyclists which we did not mind. Reached the Crown Stirrup pub at Clayhill for lunch by 12:30, in sunshine, and had a drink in their pleasant garden before lunching indoors on tasty foods supposedly mostly local produce that we liked. My first taste of bacon jam and facon jam, need to get out more perhaps.
m&b
Just a note - we got to the Oak Inn at 14:35 on a Friday (we were cutting it fine, but the instructions said food served til 3). They said that last food orders were at 14:30 and that the entire pub closed at 15:00. There aren't any other options around (Crown Stirrup was closed for refurb, supposedly open early April) so it's worth correcting the listing.
Excellent route otherwise. One final point - where it says "Follow Balmer Lawn Road in an easterly direction for 400 m with the Balmer Lawn Hotel on your left. Where the road begins to bend left and a track continues straight..." the left bend is barely noticeable, whereas the straight track peels off a 90 degree right turn. We continued walking for a bit, waiting for a substantial left bend. It may be worth mentioning the big right turn.
12 August 2014. I did this walk to-day as I have been unable to go when it has been posted.as an SWC walk. At the risk of boring people to death yet again about the benefits of GPS allied to on-line OS maps (Anquet maps and Outdoor Map Navigator (OMN) app) then this is one walk where it really works well. I quickly got fed up of the hard, wide cycle paths and the troops of cyclists and veered off these to use grassy tracks and paths through the woods, essentially going in the same general direction as the cycle routes but enjoying the peace and quiet. I ended up walking further but it was well worth the effort. The long straight path at the end across Black Knowl has signs clearly saying no cycling but there they all are merrily pounding along it oblivious to the damage they are doing!!
Brockenhurst village is an end of walk paradise for refreshments; you could develop a serious cake habit if you lingered too long here.
PeteB
At time of writing, Rosie Lea's serves a very good well-presented cream tea and delicious cakes. The scones are very large, fresh and light served with clotted cream and jam, and the tea is served on traditional crockery for £4.50 in total for one.
I would add a pointer to the Commonwealth first world War cemetery and memorial (part of a larger cemetery) as a place to visit at the end of the walk. It is a small cemetery but I am not aware of other war cemeteries in the South East of England.
I did this walk independently on 5/5/2014 and found the directions to be generally fine but here's a few suggestions, all relating to the 2nd section, Balmer Lawn to Clayhill.
1st paragraph - surely Balmer Lawn Road bends sharply to the RIGHT, not to the left at the point where you leave it. You then aim for the footbridge a short distance to the right of a small pond (not the bridge further to the right), for the benefit of those without compasses.
2nd paragraph - take the path which is sharply to the right and uphill. This brings you out on the gravel track at post 274.
Good walk - the gravel paths were a bit hard on the feet, but otherwise navigation would have been hard!
Mike
We felt it was too difficult to describe the afternoon route on minor paths so we have revised the section, Bank To Knowl. This does mean you back track a bit after lunch but we hope it is easier to follow and you should be able to enjoy the forest rather than worry about interpreting the instructions.
I echo MG's thanks and suspect I too would have floundered without directions. One comment I heard was that it was a pity to pass so close to Lyndhurst and not visit it. (Not having been there before I don't know whether it was a pity or not but perhaps an optional detour could be incorporated/suggested.)
Bits where I felt things werent going to plan were....
- shortly before the gate to the Inclosure there seemed to be a choice of going left or right this not mentioned - had to get the compass out to work out to veer right.
- I had the same feeling as MG about the gate and the broad green track though opinions were divided on this. I think its something to do with orientation changing as you approach the gate.
- When the post numbers stopped adding up we thought we had gone off piste but were probably still on track. The compass and map provided reassurance.
One other thing I forgot on the previous list:
Clayhill to Bank
Para 2, sentence 2: replace 'a wide gravel track joins from the left' with you reach a T-junction with a wide gravel track and turn right'.
Also in the previous feedback the last sentence was cut and should say:
I was very grateful for the detailed directions as I would not have been confident enough to do this as a map-led walk.
MG
After doing the walk today 30 September and bearing in mind that it's had only 1 walk check so far, these are my suggestions, recognising that some are very minor:
Brockenhurst Stn to Balmer Lawn
Para 1, sentence 3: Suggest change to 'Stay on the main road going N, passing the Snakecatcher and then the Rose & Crown on the right.'
Para 2, last sentence: Omit 'just before the 30mph sign' as you turn left about 10m after going through the gate and the 30mph sign is about 25m further ahead (distances from memory)so confusing.
Clayhill to Bank
Para 1, sentence 3: Name of school is Priory Coxlease not Coxlease.
Bank to Black Knowl
Para 1, sentence 2: You come to the sign for Gritnam rather than a visible settlement.
Para 1, sentence 3: It would be helpful to give an idea of the distance from that point (the Gritnam sign) to the turn off as it seemed a long way (but as not realising this at the beginning, I didn't start estimating it).
Para 1, last sentence: 'ignoring y off' should presumably be 'ignoring all turnings off'.
Para 2, sentence 1: Full stop instead of comma at end (I said some of this is very minor!).
Para 2, sentence 2: When you go through the gate the broad green track is ahead so it would be clearer to say 'Take the left path' or 'Fork left'.
Para 2, sentence 2: I didn't see a track from the left after 100m so this seemed to be a red herring. The marker at the x-path is number 256 not 251.
Para 2, end of last sentence should be: 'in 50m you pass marker post 257 on your left and after a further 50m at marker post 258 ... follow the cycle trail as it turns sharply to the right and goes through another gate.'
Para 3, sentence 1: after the gate 'go ahead' instead of 'turn left'.
Para 3, sentence 2:at marker post 264 'turn left' instead of 'half left'; there is a half left option but it doesn't lead to the straight gravel path.
I was very grateful for the detailed directions as I would not have been confident enough to do this as a map-