Parking
Start at Blashford Lakes Car Park on Ellingham Drove. It has two accessible bays, easy-access toilets and a café. The Education Centre has a separate car park across the road.
Overview
About Blashford Lakes Accessible Walk
Why go
- Boardwalk and two bird hides on a short loop
- Level compacted paths with ramps at the hides
Heads up
- Very short if you want a longer hike
- Only registered assistance dogs are allowed
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the New Forest map
Full mapElevation20–32 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
1 active New Forest alert
- CautionNew Forest outdoor-fire restrictionDo not use BBQs, campfires, stoves, outdoor camping equipment or other naked flames on the open Forest.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
New Forest Tour Guide
Your drive to Blashford Lakes Accessible Walk, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for New Forest National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this area
The Butcher Bird on the Heath0:00 / 0:30
“In winter, a lone pale bird perched high above open heath is worth a closer look. It might be a great grey shrike, a scarce visitor to the New Forest. Look for a grey body, black eye mask and long tail.”
Plays on the road 0.8 km from the trailhead in the Parkwolf New Forest Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Fire That Changed Identity
- Rockford Common Walks
- The Forest's Hidden Returnee
- The Stones That Boiled Water
- 283 audio storiesacross New Forest’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Red Deer, White-tailed Eagle, Harbor Seal, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 70 trails, 48 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Blashford Lakes Accessible Walk
A gentle birding loopBlashford Lakes Accessible Walk is the reserve’s short, 0.75-mile loop from the main car park.
Blashford Lakes Accessible Walk is the reserve’s short, 0.75-mile loop from the main car park. It follows surfaced paths past two bird hides, a wetland boardwalk and Dockens Water. This is a small slice of the reserve’s wider 8 km trail network. The lakes began as flooded gravel pits; come for close-up birdwatching and a quiet hour, not a big hike.
Boardwalk and waterHead toward the Education Centre and Welcome Hut, then follow the path to the woodland hide and…
Head toward the Education Centre and Welcome Hut, then follow the path to the woodland hide and the larger hide across the path. A railed bridge leads onto a long boardwalk over wetland. At the next split, take the right-hand branch to another bridge over Dockens Water. Follow the shorter-return signs with Ellingham Lake on your left, cross the stream again and loop back beside the car park. Allow about an hour if you stop at the hides.
Access on the routeThe circuit is mostly level, on compacted gravel, with ramps and space inside the hides for…
The circuit is mostly level, on compacted gravel, with ramps and space inside the hides for wheelchairs and mobility scooters. The gravel is uneven in places and can be muddy in winter. Only registered assistance dogs are allowed in the reserve.
Wildlife
Wildlife in New Forest
28 sightingsRed DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
10 sightingsWhite-tailed EagleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
14 sightingsHarbor SealMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
176 sightingsEuropean Fallow DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
93 sightingsWestern Roe DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
54 sightingsMute SwanMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across New Forest. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
