Parking
Start at Setthorns Car Park on Brighton Road near Sway; the circuit joins the mapped paths about 50 m west of the parking point.
Overview
About Setthorns Loop
Why go
- A compact, easy loop directly from its own car park.
Heads up
- A short stretch passes through the campsite.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the New Forest map
Full mapElevation36–71 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
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 Setthorns Loop, 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 trailhead
Setthorns Woodland Loop0:00 / 0:22
“You're coming up on Setthorns, where a two-mile loop winds through woodland and briefly passes through the campsite.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf New Forest Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Horseshoe Bottom Loop
- The Wood That Grew Back Differently
- The Snake You Rarely See
- Sway's Concrete Experiment
- 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 Setthorns Loop
A short woodland circuitSetthorns Loop is an easy two-mile circular walk from Setthorns Car Park in the New Forest.
Setthorns Loop is an easy two-mile circular walk from Setthorns Car Park in the New Forest. Winding paths through woodland make a compact outing, with a short passage through the local campsite before the loop returns to the same car park. Two miles is the full circuit, about 3.2 km, and the listed walk time is about one hour. It suits a spare hour when you want a simple forest walk rather than a longer cross-forest route.
Follow the mapped routeFrom the car park, the route joins the paths about 50 m west of the parking point, follows a…
From the car park, the route joins the paths about 50 m west of the parking point, follows a track to a crossroads and passes through the campsite. It continues along forest tracks and turns back at a T-junction. The campsite section is part of this route, not a shortcut. Keep the mapped line in view at junctions: the directions include several turns, and the listing gives no named viewpoint or destination beyond the circuit itself.
Starting outUse Setthorns Car Park on Brighton Road near Sway.
Use Setthorns Car Park on Brighton Road near Sway. The exact parking charge and on-site facilities were not confirmed, so bring water and do not count on a toilet stop here. Dogs are allowed. Other Setthorns-area walks use the same or nearby access but follow different, longer routes; choose this two-mile line if you want the short circuit.
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.
