Fritham to Godshill

Date: 25 November 2008

Distance: 8 1/3 miles
Parking: New Forest Fritham Car Park
Map: Explorer OL22 New Forest
Map ref for car park: SU231141

It is a good idea to plot the route on your map carefully before setting out for this walk as I found one or two of the paths indistinct or requiring a diversion due to saturation of the ground.

Walk back towards the entrance to the car park and turn left down the tarmac lane. In about 500 yards arrive at Iron Wells and the entrance to another car park. Walk up through the car park and past the barrier through trees. Leaving the trees find the indistinct path that goes uphill on pony-shaven lawns through heather and bracken after fording the stream that runs along the bottom of the rise. At the top of the hill is a wider path which forks, take the left hand fork and walk downhill from Homy Ridge to Claypits Bottom. Ford the stream and continue uphill towards the car park at Studley Head.

From the car park, take the wide track which skirts the western edge of the trees. Where another path goes off to the right, turn along this and follow it round to the right towards Leaden Hall, a wide shallow area of gravel, sand and grassed areas. Cross Leaden Hall and follow the wide grass track from the north west edge heading south west to Little Cockley Plain. At the T-junction turn right and continue along this track as it passes through groves of trees, goes down Cockley Hill and over the shallow bridge at the bottom to climb again the other side up to Ashley Walk car park at Godshill. If you wish, this is a good place to take a break.

As you face the road (Roger Penney Way) turn left and walk along Godshill Ridge until the cricket ground is reached. Bear left here and find the path running downhill again to Ditchend Bottom. Keep left wherever the path splits off and after fording another stream, enter Pitts Wood Inclosure from the north west, heading south east up a wide grass track. At the top of the track turn left on to a wide walk. Be careful in winter as the track is very muddy under the leaves that cover it. Where the path forks bear always to the right until the track becomes firm gravel and heads more steeply uphill to emerge on Hampton Ridge, merging with the cycle track. Turn left towards Amberwood Inclosure.

Keep along this cycle track, excellent underfoot in all weathers but does undulate quite a lot, and quite steeply in places, and will bring you back to Fritham car park.


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Acres Down to Lucas Castle

Date: 23 November 2008

Distance: 51/2 miles

Parking: New Forest Car Park Acres Down

Map: Explorer OL22

Map ref for car park: SU268098

Leave the car park and turn left on to the gravel cycle track. Where the track bends round to the right owards a gateless gateway continue straight ahead through boundary posts. There are two grass forest tracks heading into the trees, keep to the right hand path, which is the one marked on the map.

Go down into the trees and over a wooden footbridge. Where the path divides after the bridge keep right, heading west. Pass into Holmhill Inclosure and at a T-junction turn left, heading south. Go through a wide wooden gate and follow the track uphill and down the other side to another cycle track. Turn right to be heading in a westerly direction.

At a fork take the right hand track down to another gate. Pass through the pedestrian gate and bear round to the left to cross the bridge over Highland Water. Keep following the cycle track round until the exit gate to the Canadian Memorial and road is seen at the top of the rise. Just before the gate turn off along a grass track between trees and gorse. The track passes beside a small lake and shortly after this comes to a small gate out on to moorland.

Through the gate take the second grass path right from the gate. This path goes downhill with lovely views of open moorland and forest on all sides. Where the path passes through a narrow strip of copse there is a bridgeless stream which has to be jumped or forded.

Past the stream the path climbs up to Lucas Castle and then climbs again to two lakes. From here, the plan was to find the path across Withybed Bottom to Stonnard Wood but as it was beginning to get dark and the path proving harder to find than I had thought I continued along to the car park.

Pass through the car park, or follow one of the paths around it to the main drive into the car park from the road. Arriving at the road, turn right and walk along the road, or verge, for approximately 1 mile until a four way sign post marking Stony Cross, Minstead, Acres Down and Emery Down is reached. Turn right along the driveway signed Acres Down, past Piglets Corner and other buildings, across a ford and uphill past Acres Down House. Bear right with the drive and then left past the hand-painted sign for Acres Down Car Park nailed to a tree, and arrive back at the car park in the shadow of the slope of Acres Down.

Within Highland Water Inclosure I took a couple of shortcuts along paths marked on the map as white, undashed lines. For the sake of clarity I have not included these shortcuts but with basic map-reading skills such shortcuts are easy enough to follow. Be aware though that these paths are grass and can be very dirty in winter and after heavy rain.

If the light had not been failing and I had gone across Withybed Bottom, the route would have turned left alongside Stonnard Wood and passed around the trees of Ringwood Ford Bottom, eventually turning right to pass over Ringwood Ford and then left to come back to Acres Down from the north west.

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