BH25 5TZ SZ245982 near the popular Rising Sun pub With its car park by the little bridge over the Avon water on the road from Brockenhurst to Bashley, this inclosure is well worth a visit.
BH25 5TZ SZ245982 near the popular Rising Sun pub
With its car park by the little bridge over the Avon water on the road from Brockenhurst to Bashley, this inclosure is well worth a visit. Don’t be put off by the busy car park at the bridge and likely gathering of picnickers and paddlers on sunny days. This place can tend to be a chosen by large groups of doggy daycare pets, but you can soon lose them within a few hundred metres ! From my observations these dogs don’t get walked very far…
Wootton Bridge has a circular gravelled path of over 8.5km for walkers and cyclists/riders as well as many offshoot paths for the more adventurous or walkers with good boots. Many areas of clay mud are only passable at wet times with stout footwear and can get quite churned up by the occasional groups of cattle and ponies. Pigs are let into the more distant areas for pannage and these paths then become very sticky.
On the furthest sections and off the main paths we have often seen deer and heard the first cuckoo of the year in mid April. Once familiar with the inclosure you can take shorter routes back to the gates if you do not have time to complete the whole circuit.
Meaning “wood farm” this inclosure is managed by Forestry England and in 2018 lage-scale works took place to re-introduce meanders into the River Avon to improve the wildife habitat – the Wootton Riverine project. There is plenty of wildife to see and I like the variety of woodland as you go around the tracks – much is ancient decidous , but here are mysterious dark areas of closely-planted conifers as well.
If you have good boots and don’t mind jumping a few bogs the area to the far right of the car park is also good to explore. Cwtch Collie particularly likes the little conifer grove that you can see in the distance from the car park. Be warned though – the bogs toward the road beyond the conifers are deep and have hidden patches where you can quickly lose your footing – I got stuck up to my waist here once and needed my partner to pull me out…..
This sounds a lovely walk! Thank you for sharing it 💚🌳