Parking
Start at Ringwood Road Fordingbridge Car Park, Ringwood Road, SP6 1AN. The route returns to the same car park.
Overview
About Fordingbridge Town Walk
Why go
- A compact mix of riverside path, gardens and historic town landmarks.
Heads up
- Town streets and crossings interrupt the riverside sections.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the New Forest map
Full mapElevation24–32 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 Fordingbridge Town 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 Painter by the Bridge0:00 / 0:27
“Beside Fordingbridge's Great Bridge stands a bronze figure of Augustus John, a painter who made this town his home in 1927.”
Plays on the road 0.9 km from the trailhead in the Parkwolf New Forest Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Seven Arches, Several Centuries
- Blue Above the Bog
- The Maze with No Wrong Turns
- The Avon’s Jawless Traveller
- 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 Fordingbridge Town Walk
A town-and-river circuitFordingbridge Town Walk is an easy circular route of about 2 miles from Ringwood Road…
Fordingbridge Town Walk is an easy circular route of about 2 miles from Ringwood Road Fordingbridge Car Park. Allow about an hour. It follows the River Avon beside the recreation ground, then loops through riverside green space and the centre of Fordingbridge. Choose it for a low-effort mix of river scenery and local history; this is a town-and-river outing rather than a long walk into the forest.
What you passThe first leg follows the riverside path, crosses grassland beyond the Beacon and passes…
The first leg follows the riverside path, crosses grassland beyond the Beacon and passes through the Memorial Garden and playpark. In town the route goes by the Town Hall and St Mary's Church, crosses the Avon bridge, then turns up Round Hill. The seven-arched bridge is the standout: the first bridge here was built in 1252, widened in 1841, and given a footpath in 1901.
Start and effortThe return uses town paths and streets, with several crossings, including a zebra crossing.
The return uses town paths and streets, with several crossings, including a zebra crossing. A short stretch along the car-park access lane closes the loop at the same Ringwood Road car park (SP6 1AN). The listed difficulty is easy, but the route changes from riverside path to grass and town street. Surface and step-free access details are not established, so treat it as unverified for step-free travel.
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.
