Car Park : Beaulieu Road
Location : SU 35079 06325
Distance : 4.1 miles
Date : 10th March 2018
Conditions : Mild and overcast, brightening
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(N.B. These notes are not designed as detailed instructions for the walk. If you’d like to do the walk, see my advice here)
Well after the comments about fair-weather walkers last time, we decided to chance it this time (a wet morning, somewhat ominous skies). Fortunately the gods were smiling on us, and it actually out a rather pleasant early-spring afternoon (although there was a lot of dampness out there – but more of that later).
Beaulieu Road is… on Beaulieu Road – a road that runs from Lyndhurst to… yes, Beaulieu. The car park is right opposite the Beaulieu Road Hotel (who’d have thought it – spotting a pattern here!), and adjoins Beaulieu Road Station (well it would, wouldn’t it!). It’s hidden in a little Pine wood, and is adjacent to an area which is used at various times of the year for horse auctions.
Our walk followed a rough figure-of-8 route, heading away from the main road into the wood, before coming out into an area of open heath land, the landscape for much of the walk. The route criss-crosses the Southampton-to-Bournemouth railway line a number of times, first over a bridge where it enters an even more open area, before following alongside the railway line, circling up through Kings Passage (a narrow, wooded passage over a stream) and round to the top of the route from Deerleap, before returning on the other side of the railway, over a couple of streams, back and forth (under and under) the railway line, and then climbing up to road leading to a farm which – in the opposite direction – returns us to the car park.
The excitement this time round came mainly from the conditions underfoot. Clearly the significant snowfall the previous weekend, plus copious amounts of rain before and after, meant that the much of the ground underfoot was sodden. We had suspected this might be the case, but the rules (admittedly self-imposed!) said we had to do these in order, so like the intrepid explorers we are we prepared to face the elements. Lakes had sprung up where lakes should never be, many of the paths were now running streams, and the ground everywhere was mud, mud, mud. It would be fair to say that this wasn’t the most straightforward of routes, and definitely required waterproof footwear / wellies / waders / boats to make it even vaguely passable. A walk for the summer months, me thinks.
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New Forest Car Park Walks 