A study has revealed the UK’s most impressive forests and woodlands for the best winter walk.
After analysing Google reviews, Instagram posts and Google searches, retailer GO Outdoors ranked the UK’s ten favourite woodlands and forests according to a “woodland scale”.
The New Forest in Hampshire took the crown as the UK’s best, with an impressive score of 9.94 out of 10.
The woodland garnered over a million annual Google searches, topped only by Nottingham’s Sherwood Forest which ranked seventh best, and its 23,000 Google reviews averaged at 4.8 out of 5.
Free-roaming ponies, cattle and donkeys add to its serene appeal, and walkers can explore more than 140 miles of tracks and footpaths to admire more than 1,000 species of ancient trees which have been recorded in the forest.
It also had the greatest Instagram presence by far, with more than 1.1 million tagged pictures, miles above second place which had over 350,000 posts.
The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, which featured in the Harry Potter films, came close second overall with a score of 9.03, garnering nearly 900,000 annual Google searches and over 350,000 Instagram posts.
Located between the River Severn and Wye on the border of England and Wales, the cinematic woodland has its own cycling centre, and horse riding is even permitted within the forest.
Coming in third is Northern Ireland’s first state forest park, Tollymore Forest, established in 1955, which gained an overall score of 8.73.
Visitors can go camping, horse riding or even orienteering in the forest which also had its own cinema moment, chosen as a filming location for Game of Thrones.
There’s an even spread across England, with four forests located in the South, three in the Midlands and two in the North, and one in Northern Ireland.
Woodland ranking by Go Outdoors
- New Forest, Hampshire: 9.94
- Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire: 9.03
- Tollymore Forest, County Down, Northern Ireland: 8.73
- Thetford Forest, Suffolk and Norfolk: 8.12
- Padley Gorge, Derbyshire: 8.12
- Epping Forest, Essex: 8.04
- Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire: 7.82
- Kielder Forest, Northumberland: 7.67
- Ashdown Forest, East Sussex: 7.52
- Macclesfield Forest, Cheshire: 7.06
