New Forest National Park: Canonical Guide Collection and Landscape Resources

Ancient royal forest with open heathland and living pastoral traditions

New Forest National Park

The New Forest stands as a living testament to nearly a thousand years of continuous stewardship and habitation in southern England. What makes this landscape particularly remarkable is that it is not a pristine wilderness preserved by exclusion but rather a working pastoral environment where ancient rights of common pasture are still actively exercised. The New Forest Commoners turn out their ponies, cattle, and pigs to graze the open heaths and woodland, maintaining the open character of the landscape that defines its ecological character. This partnership between human activity and natural processes has created a habitat of extraordinary biodiversity value, where heathland, woodland, valley bogs, and wood-pasture exist in a dynamic equilibrium. The forest drains to the south via three rivers—the Lymington, Beaulieu, and Avon Water—while the western areas are fed by streams including Latchmore Brook and Dockens Water. The area encompasses approximately 380 square kilometres of the historic royal forest within a national park of 566 square kilometres, and roughly 90 percent of the New Forest remains in Crown ownership, managed by Forestry England.