We are the Winchester Ramblers. We open the way for everyone in our local community to enjoy the pleasures of walking.
A fairly easy, mostly level with only two very gentle slopes, in a quieter area of the New Forest. This circular walk is mostly on firm paths. We walk on a grassy track beside the road through the village, pass Hatchet Pond and walk on gravel and forest tracks through woods and heathland. The final section is across a moor that is passable but it can be avoided if necessary by taking the grass verges along the road.
There is some parking in the pub car park but take care of large potholes, otherwise use the roadside. We depart at 10am. We are booked into the pub for 1pm - there are plenty of reasonably priced food choices, plus a blackboard with daily specials. The pub does not require pre-orders but needs to know numbers staying for lunch.
Please book a place on the walk using the email link, whether or not you are staying for lunch, but say which.
The Turfcutters Arms, Main Road, East Boldre, Hampshire, SO42 7WL. You will also find oodles of interesting displays on the walls and over your pint can if you will imagine times gone by because the Turfcutters has also been at the centre of lots of fascinating local history! From the traditional forest digging of peat to the earliest Flying School and the subsequent pilot and plane participation in WW1, the whole of the local heathland area was then covered with wartime activities in WW2. The recently lovingly restored “Beaulieu Letters” which showed pilots the way in to land stand testament and are just a few minutes walk from the pub.
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