Lyndhurst Parish Walk

The Lyndhurst Parish Walk is a 9.4-mile loop that roughly traces the parish boundary around Lyndhurst, starting and finishing at the main car park in the village. It links open heath, two woodland inclosures, the hamlets of Bank, Gritnam, Allum Green and Emery Down, and four pubs, with ponies and cattle wandering through most of it. It's usually listed as 8.4 miles, but from the car park and back it comes to about 9.4 on the ground, so allow about four hours before any pub stop. Do this one if you want a proper day on foot from Lyndhurst without getting back in the car.

You walk up the High Street to the war memorial under Bolton's Bench, the yew-topped knoll that's the parish symbol, named after an 18th-century Duke of Bolton who was Lord Warden of the Forest. The route crosses the Beaulieu Road into Pondhead Inclosure, where volunteers have brought back the largest area of hazel coppice left on Crown land. Past the back of the Crown Stirrup at Clay Hill you cross the A337, follow a fence line over heath into Brick Kiln Inclosure and climb to the lane at Bank.

From the Oak Inn the route circles the few houses at Gritnam and ducks under the A35 through a short, muddy underpass. After Allum Green comes Cut Walk, a dead-straight track beside a long brick wall, laid out in 1725 for the third Duke of Bolton. A woodland path winds down to the New Forest Inn at Emery Down, then Silver Street's thatched cottages lead to Pikes Hill. The last stretch crosses Romsey Road, runs along an embankment beside the New Forest Golf Club, goes under the Southampton Road and climbs back over the heath to Bolton's Bench.

Signage is poor and the route doesn't always take the obvious path, so keep the route open on your phone. The usual wrong turns are on the heath beyond Foxlease, where you keep the fence on your right, and at the top of Cut Walk, where you turn left before the track drops downhill. It's often very wet, and Cut Walk and the underpasses get properly muddy after rain. You also cross the A337 twice, at Clay Hill and at Pikes Hill by a refuge, and walk short stretches of lane.

The pubs are well spaced for lunch: the Crown Stirrup, the Oak Inn, the New Forest Inn (18th century, doing pies, grills and vegetarian dishes) and the thatched Waterloo Arms at Pikes Hill, with a big beer garden. The main car park is pay and display, with toilets and the New Forest Heritage Centre, and Bolton's Bench car park on the Beaulieu Road is on the loop if you'd rather start there. You can cut back into the village on pavements from Clay Hill, Emery Down or Pikes Hill. Dogs are welcome, but keep them close around livestock and on the main tracks from March to July, when birds nest on the ground.