Walks: Latchmoor, near Brockenhurst

A great short walk only a little over a mile from Brockenhurst can be started across Setley Plain from the small layby on the Sway turning along the A337 from Lymington to Brockenhurst (Southampton Road). There is a nearby bus stop and the turning is almost opposite the Filly Inn, so this could be a good way to stretch your legs after or before a meal at the pub! We often stop off here after picking up friends or family from Brockenhurst station to let Cwtch Collie have a run and it was a great place for our little granddaughter to run free and play too. Most of the paths will lead you back to the road if you take a circular route and it is easy to see where you are – use the Filly Inn as a landmark.

With views to the Sway Tower and the passing trains in the distance, this part of the plain has some open stretches, wide well-trodden paths and areas of gorse and scrub. Lower reaches lead to boggy patches with the glorious names of Three Beech Bottom, Milking Pound Bottom and Widden Bottom and there are numerous banks and ditches indicating Bronze age remains. Popular with New Forest ponies and full of rabbit holes there is plenty to explore, and the area is good for birds such as the Dartford warbler, stonechats, linnets, and nightjars. Silver studded blue butterflies thrive here too. It is a good place to pick blackberries in late summer and longer walks can be added across the plain or towards Sway. Back on the main road paths led through to the lanes accessing Royden Woods Nature Reserve (see other walk features).

Until the early part of the 20^th century gypsies lived in the wooded glades on the stretch across the road, where there is another small layby.  During the second World War, Setley plain had prisoner-of-war camps for Italian and later Germans.

The Sway tower was built by Judge Andrew Thomas Turton in the late 19^th century to demonstrate the use of reinforced concrete and stands at 218 feet high.