The Forest of Dean
Woodland Walks
Our nearest Forest spot is Wenchford, just 10–15 minutes away. As toddlers, our children happily spent hours paddling in the brook, floating homemade boats and building dams. Wander upstream and you'll often discover rope swings, woodland dens and other miniature engineering projects left behind by previous young explorers.
From here, a woodland walks (with incredible springtime bluebells) leads towards Mallards Pike (with a small cafe and basic kids trail) and Soudley Ponds. Oppostie Soudley, Dean Heritage Centre is a lovely introduction to the Forest itself. Set within five acres of woodland, it tells the story of this unique place through interactive exhibits, a working waterwheel, charcoal burner's camp and Victorian cottage. Children tend to remain relateively engaged, particularly on the Gruffalo Trail, where beautifully carved wooden characters appear amongst the trees. If you're lucky, you may even spot the sculptor at work with his chainsaw in his workshop near the car park.
Beechenhurst is super family-oriented, with a café, pizzas, picnic benches and designated barbecue spots during summer months. For little foresters, there’s both an outdoor play area, and the Julia Donaldson Trail. For 4+ there’s also Go Ape Tree Top Adventure (booking advised)
Various walking trails start from here, including the Sculpture Trail a series of 16 sculptures created by artists to interpret the Forest landscape and history. Established in 1986, and added to over the years, they have been intentionally left over the decades to be reclaimed by the forest over time. 4.5 miles, with a suggested walk time of 90mins, though can also be explored in a series of shorter distances.
The Cyril Hart Arboretum was established in 1915 with trees brought back by the Victorian plant hunter Ernest Wilson from his 1910 explorations of China. Originally known as the Speech House Arboretum, it was later renamed after Dr Cyril Hart who dedicated a lifetime of service to forestry and was a Senior Verderer of the Forest of Dean. The collection of trees has been added to over the years and now contains over 200 species found from around the world. If you'd rather swap people for birdsong, RSPB Nagshead Nature Reserve is one of Britain's finest surviving ancient oak woodlands. Equally peaceful is Woorgreens Nature Reserve, where woodland, lakes and marshland attract dragonflies, damselflies and abundant birdlife.
On Two Wheels
The Forest of Dean is one of Britain's best places to explore by bike.
Cannop Cycle Centre is the obvious starting point, with traffic-free family trails, longer leisure rides and some of the country's best mountain biking all beginning from the same place. Pedalabikeaway, based here, hires everything from balance bikes to full-suspension mountain bikes and has an excellent café that happily caters for hungry, muddy cyclists.
If Cannop is fully booked, Dean Forest Cycles in Parkend is another excellent independent hire shop.
The traffic-free Colliers Trail links many of the Forest's prettiest locations, and various pitstops for snacks along the way, making cycling one of the easiest ways to explore and usually takes us about 2 hours (with two young children, and Red ;)
Family Adventures
Some places simply capture children's imaginations.
Clearwell Caves are a family outing particularly on a rainy day or indeed a heatwave (though don't forget a jumper) Explore the hidden world the miners created, as they dug through impressive natural caverns to remove iron ore. The gift shop here is brilliantly independent and a lovely cafe too.
Puzzlewood is a wonderful weird otherworld, and really pretty magical, especially on crisp days when the whole forest seems to sparkle like CGI… you quickly see why it (reportedly) inspired Tolkien and why it has featured in so many films - Star Wars, Harry Potter etc. Make sure you’ve got a sensible pair of shoes/boots as it’s a meandering 1.5 mile walk through sometimes slimy ravines. Spring time is worth a return visit, just for the birdsong, bluebells and wild garlic. There’s also a small café and for children, a basic but sweet little farm, with Highland cows, donkeys and ducks.
A couple of minutes further down the road is Perrygrove Railway which young children love. A steam train which has regular rides into the woods dropping you off in a picnic bench dotted playground. Their Treetop Adventure is a hit too, with a slide, suspended bridge and ladders to climb.
The Dean Forest Railway offers another wonderful glimpse into the area's industrial heritage. Running through woodland between Lydney and Parkend, its heritage steam and diesel trains follow part of the old Severn & Wye Railway, once vital to transporting coal and iron from the Forest.