5 beautiful ancient woodland walks in the UK to enjoy this spring
Surround yourself with ancient trees and seasonal wild flowers on a restorative walk through a historic landscape
If you're lucky enough to live near an ancient woodland (or an old woodland which has been undisturbed for several hundred years), now is the time it will begin to come into bloom in a carpet of native wild flowers.
Primroses, wood anemone, wild garlic and native bluebells (spanning March-May), and hard ferns and lichen, are all signs of an ancient woodland.
According to the Woodland Trust, "Just 2.5 per cent of the UK land is covered in ancient woodland", a rich habitat of "undisturbed soils and accumulated decaying wood, creating unique and complex communities of plants, fungi, insects and other microorganisms".
Get your walking boots ready... Here are five of our favourites:
Hackfall Wood
A Grade I-listed Site of Special Scientific Interest where wildflowers cluster beside tumbling streams.
Where: North Yorkshire
Look out for: warblers, chiffchaffs and kingfishers by the river.
Visit: Hackfall
Puzzlewood
Mossy scowles and twisted roots give this ancient woodland an otherworldly feel.
Where: Gloucestershire
Look out for: wild garlic (March-May), wood anemones (March-May) and lesser celandine (Jan-April).
Visit: Puzzlewood
Killeter Forest
Remote and richly biodiverse, these ancient woods are home to starry wood anemones and clear pools.
Where: County Tyrone
Look out for: frogs, newts and otters.
Visit: Killeter Forest
Ashdown Forest
Famous for inspiring AA Milne, this landscape offers wide lowland heathland (60 per cent) with its veteran woodland of oak and silver birch trees, along with beech, chestnut and hornbeam.
Where: East Sussex
Look out for: bluebells (April-May), wood anemone (March-May) and woodpeckers.
Visit: Ashdown Forest
Ariundle Oakwood
A nationally significant remnant of Scotland’s ancient rainforest, this beautiful spot feels like it belongs in a scene from The Lord of the Rings.
Where: Sunart area of Lochaber, Highlands
Look out for: lush mosses, lichens and wood anemones (March-May).
Visit: Ariundle Oakwood
Maddy is the Homes Writer at House Beautiful UK and Country Living UK, where she can be found writing about the latest interiors news and collating inspiring trend edits. She has previously worked for Good Housekeeping, Prima and Red, and has an MA in Classics and Ancient History from the University of Manchester and a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.
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