Where is bere forest

Keep straight ahead on the wide stone track, climbing gently for 50 metres and then bearing right. Look out for a side track on your right marked West Walk m. Here you have two choices. If you wish to follow the shorter route which avoids the narrowest and muddiest sections, turn right here and follow the West Walk signs back to the car park.

However, for the full walk, go straight ahead at this junction. At the next crossroads with a car park arrow on your left , turn left, still following a wide stone track.

Continue until the track begins to lead you more steeply downhill and, just before it bears left to begin climbing, turn right onto a smaller side path. This path can be muddy in part, but for most of the way you will be able to see stones and red bricks just below the surface mud. Follow this long, fairly straight path all the way to the far end, where it swings hard right.

This marks the edge of the forest, close to Liberty Road although the road is not visible when the trees are in leaf.

Immediately after this sharp right bend, ignore the grass path to your left, instead continue ahead on the path leading you back into the heart of the forest. Ignore any smaller side turns. Some sections of this path can be particularly muddy at times, but it is possible to avoid the worst of it by taking small detours into the trees at the sides of the path.

Eventually you will emerge to a crossroads with a wide, level, surfaced track. Turn right along this track and it leads you back to the crossroads that you passed through earlier in the walk. Turn left here, following a wide stone path.

The path bears steadily left and then begins to climb gently, bearing slightly right. At the top, you will reach a staggered T-junction with a bench ahead. Turn sharp right at this junction and follow the woodland path leading you steadily downhill. Follow this path winding and undulating ahead, going straight on at the first crossroads and later reaching a wide fork.

Turn left here, heading uphill, and this narrow path leads you out to a junction with the main surfaced track. Turn left to join the main, wide stone track. The track leads you first gently and then more steeply uphill and you will emerge to the BBQ Picnic Area. Beyond this you will find the car park where the walk began.

The Forest of Bere is located just to the north east of Wickham and about 4 miles north of Fareham. There are several visitor car parks and this route starts at the West Walk Forestry Commission car park, accessed from Hundred Acres Road. Approximate post code PO17 6JD. Reviews Sort by:.

Shelbi Grist. November 8, Walking Muddy Off trail. Annie Chamberlain. April 25, April 18, Rebecca Combe. March 22, Was good, little bit muddy so best with walking boots. Ant Marter. March 15, Walking Muddy. Vince Keen. January 8, Good but stick to the marked trail! It gets very muddy otherwise. Jacqui Worsdell. January 7, Danielle Ruzewicz. December 12, Terry T.

December 6, Matthew Halloran. November 6, Phil gowers. September 7, One of our favourites. Emma Davies. August 23, Rachael Knott. July 12, Carly Cockburn. It is bounded to the north by the South Downs, to the south primarily by coastal towns, such as Portsmouth and Fareham, and stretches from Eastleigh in the west to the Sussex border. Its landscape has a patchwork of woods and fields with ancient hedgerows and narrow winding lanes, interspersed with villages and small towns full of character.

The area is easily accessible from nearby urban areas, but few of their inhabitants are aware of the Forest and what it has to offer. In the 13th and 14th centuries, two royal forests formed a greater forerunner of the later vestigial forest between the New Forest and the Sussex border. Woodland habitats and contiguous Country Parks.

Listed from east to west, excluding small copses and coppices. Southleigh Forest. Staunton Country Park. Bells Copse. The Queen's Inclosure in Waterlooville. Sawyer's Wood. Creech Woods. Place Wood. Mitchelland Copse. Stroud Coppice. Hipley Copse. Grub Coppice with Mill Coppice.

Dirty Copse with Great Holywell Copse. Orchard Copse with Birching Copse. The Verderer's Court was instituted in to regulate forest use. Like other royal forests its main purpose was for hunting, but it soon became important for timber.

By the 17th century timber was fast disappearing - three per cent of its timber remained and the land area had been reduced to 25 square miles. Samual Pepys thought it large enough, and because there were still perils for the traveller, records in show that he 'hired a countryman to guide us to Havant to avoid going through the forest'. Bere suffered from its proximity to the shipbuilding industry and land-hungry farmers. Petitions sent to the Treasury complained about large areas of wasteland inside the Royal Forest and asked for its formal disafforestation by Parliament.

This was granted in Today, the forest is a shadow of its former self.