VISIT BROCKENHURST
The village of Brockenhurst is just 15 minutes’ drive from Elmers Court, described by some as Britain’s most beautiful place to live.
Brockenhurst is the New Forest’s largest village with several trip-worthy features including a 1000-year-old yew tree in St Nicholas’s churchyard which pre-dates the New Forest itself, a ford which becomes a scenic ‘watersplash` when two streams village merge across the road in summertime and the sight of New Forest residents - ponies, donkeys and deer – happily meandering down the high street. A settlement at Brockenhurst dates back to the Domesday Book and there are some fabulous walks which showcase the picturesque and historic local landscape.
From Brookley Road Car park in the village you can walk all the way up Rhinefield Road, pausing at Whitefield Moor and the Forestry Commission’s Blackwater Arboretum, before the road becomes Rhinefield Ornamental Drive – famous for its stunning azalea and rhododendron displays. The Knightwood Oak - 500 years old and known as the Queen of the Forest - is a great end point.
From Brookley Road Car park in the village you can walk all the way up Rhinefield Road, pausing at Whitefield Moor and the Forestry Commission’s Blackwater Arboretum, before the road becomes Rhinefield Ornamental Drive – famous for its stunning azalea and rhododendron displays. The Knightwood Oak - 500 years old and known as the Queen of the Forest - is a great end point.
For a shorter walk, take the Tall Trees Trail from Blackwater Car Park which leads you through the Blackwater Arboretum. Here you’ll discover a small but extremely important collection of trees from all over the world, with sensory information boards along the trail providing fascinating facts about the tallest, heaviest and toughest trees in the world. You’ll pass majestic conifers planted in the 1850s, some of the oldest Douglas fir trees in Britain and views of two enormous redwoods trees – the tallest trees in the New Forest.
There are car parks situated at various points on Rhinefield Road so there are several ways to see the sights, from the full hike to a scenic drive with short bursts of walking at key points.
The 5-mile Brockhurst Village walk which includes riverside, woodlands and heathland views is a lovely circuit if you want a flavour of the village and countryside combined.
