Weston Lane Car Park
Southampton, Hampshire, SO19 9SH
Contact & location
- Address
- Southampton, Hampshire, SO19 9SH
About camping in the New Forest
The New Forest National Park was designated in 2005, making it one of England's newest national parks. The New Forest Commoners, a group of local landowners, hold ancient rights to graze their animals on the open forest — these "verderers" still meet in the ancient Court of Verderers in Lyndhurst to administer the grazing rights. The area is notable for its biodiversity: it contains the largest extent of semi-natural ancient pasture woodland in lowland Britain and is an internationally recognised habitat for rare invertebrates. Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst are the main rail access points from London Waterloo.
Why camp in the New Forest?
The New Forest is one of the most unusual landscapes in Britain — a National Park covering 219 square miles of ancient pasture woodland, open heath, and bog, grazed by free-roaming ponies, cattle, and pigs under a system of common rights that has continued largely unchanged since William the Conqueror established it as a royal hunting forest in 1079. For campers, this means the rare pleasure of waking on a pitch to find a pony grazing nearby, cycling through oak forest, and reaching the Solent coast within an hour. The New Forest Forestry England campsites are some of the most popular in Britain, offering simple, natural camping in extraordinary surroundings.