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Beaulieu to Bucklers Hard

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Our view

"Step back in time on this riverside stroll through the Beaulieu Estate."

Walk directions

Take the gravel track to the side of the car park entrance past the Old Bakehouse tea room to the High Street. Turn left and follow it down to the main road. Turn right, passing the front of the handsome Montagu Arms Hotel, and turn immediately right along the tarmac road beside the hotel. This becomes a gravel track near the fire station. Stay on this as it goes round the back of the hotel and past the hotel car parks, to bear left through a gate.

Follow the broad gravel track between meadows, passing through a gate, through the strip of Jarvis’s Copse, and along the side of a field to pass a gate beside Brickyard Cottage, at Bailey’s Hard. Continue along the track through woodland. Shortly, bear right then left along the track, signed to ‘Bucklers Hard and Solent Way’, beside a wooden barrier.

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Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Woodland and riverside paths, gravel track

Landscape - River valley with woodland, farmland and marshes

Dog friendliness - Let them off lead on woodland paths but keep on lead where signs indicate

Parking - Pay-and-display car park in Beaulieu village

Toilets en route - Beaulieu and Bucklers Hard

About the walk

Set at the head of the Beaulieu River, historic Beaulieu is an attractive village of red-brick Georgian cottages dominated by Palace House, originally the great gatehouse to a Cistercian abbey founded in 1204 by King John. To many visitors, ‘Beaulieu’ simply means the abbey ruins and the motor... museum, but the village itself remains relatively unspoilt and is well worth exploring, with specialist little shops, a fine art gallery, and the New Forest ponies and donkeys wandering through and holding up the traffic. Bucklers Hard This hamlet, with its single picturesque street leading down to the river, was laid out in the 18th century by the 2nd Duke of Montagu. Having been granted the West Indian islands of St Lucia and St Vincent, he planned to develop a port on the Beaulieu River to import and refine sugar grown on the islands. His dream was shattered when the French invaded his islands. Twenty years later, he inherited the right to a free harbour and, with plentiful timber supplies close by, Bucklers Hard became a prosperous shipbuilding centre. Many wooden warships, including Nelson’s HMS Agamemnon, were made from New Forest oak here until around 1820. In its busy days the wide main street was used for rolling great logs to the ‘hard’ where the ships were built. Today, the village is a living museum, the street is free of traffic and looks much as it did in its shipbuilding heyday. You can visit the fascinating Maritime Museum and learn about the shipbuilding industry, then explore authentically reconstructed cottage and inn interiors to gain an insight into the life of the workers in the 18th century, before strolling along the riverbank to view the remains of the inlets where some of the 50 wooden naval and merchant vessels were built. Bailey's Hard About halfway between Beaulieu and Bucklers Hard is a cluster of cottages, and a house with an industrial-scale chimney. This is Bailey’s Hard, the site of a thriving brick-making industry in the 18th century. Bricks were made here until the 1930s, and many were used in the estate houses. They were shipped downriver and along the coast to Southampton. This is also where the first naval vessel to be built on the Beaulieu River, the Salisbury, was completed in 1698, before the industry moved downstream. Much of the walking route passes through woodland once used for shipbuilding. Keeping Copse was replanted in about 1820, after much of the mature timber had been felled for this purpose. You can still identify some of the trees that were encouraged to grow the heavy side branches used in the ship’s frames.

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About the area

Hampshire’s varied landscape of hills and heaths, downlands and forests, valleys and coast are without rival in southern England. Hike across the chalk downland of the north Hampshire ‘highlands’, meander along peaceful paths through unspoilt river valleys of the Test, Itchen, Avon and Meon, or explore the lonely salt marshes and the beautiful medieval forest and heathland of the New Forest.

Route details

Difficulty:

Easy

Gradient:

Gentle

Distance:

4.8 miles (7.7kms)

Ascent:

266ft (81m)

If you like this walk, you can try more routes in the area.

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Beaulieu to Bucklers Hard

Recommended by

Our view

"Step back in time on this riverside stroll through the Beaulieu Estate."

Walk details

Difficulty:

Easy

Gradient:

Gentle

Distance:

4.8 miles (7.7kms)

Ascent:

266ft (81m)

Walk directions

1 of 5

2 of 5

After 200yds (183m) head off left on the Riverside Walk, signed to ‘Bucklers Hard’. Cross a footbridge and follow the winding path through the trees and along boardwalks, enjoying the views to the river. Where the path almost meets the inland track, keep left over a bridge. Cross two footbridges and bear round to the right. Cross another four footbridges and when, at the fourth, the path almost meets the track, keep left.

3 of 5

At a seat overlooking the river the path bends inland to a small car park. Rejoin the main gravel track, go through the gate ahead and follow the track right past the entrance to a birding hide at Keeping Marsh. Stay on the track to pass the boatyard on your left. Bear left at the entrance to the boatyard, and follow the signposted route past a car park and down to the water’s edge. Turn right to pass the thatched Duke’s Bath House, and continue to the quay in Bucklers Hard.

4 of 5

Turn right up the broad main street to explore the village. The museum is at the top. Return down the main street and turn left along the riverbank, retracing your steps past the boatyard. This time, keep left, just beyond the bird hide, past a gate for the direct route back to Beaulieu through the woods. At the gate at Point 2, take the path left through a gate, signed ‘Beaulieu Village’. Follow the path left and right round the school playing field and between houses to emerge on the High Street. Cross straight over to return to the car park.

5 of 5

Location

Starting point

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Woodland and riverside paths, gravel track

Landscape - River valley with woodland, farmland and marshes

Dog friendliness - Let them off lead on woodland paths but keep on lead where signs indicate

Parking - Pay-and-display car park in Beaulieu village

Toilets en route - Beaulieu and Bucklers Hard

Walks in Hampshire Dog-friendly walks in Hampshire Family friendly walks in Hampshire

About the walk

Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

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Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

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Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

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Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

About the area

Hampshire

Beaulieu to Bucklers Hard

Been on this walk?

Walking in Safety

Get an AA guide

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Beaulieu to Bucklers Hard

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