Walking in the Forest of Dean

The 25 walks in this guidebook range from relatively simple half-day strolls to challenging full-day excursions along parts of the three long-distance trails which thread their way through the area. With the exception of these longer routes, which will take a full day and require a good level of fitness, almost all of the routes are circular walks and generally they can comfortably be completed in half a day. The walks are described in four sections, covering the western ridges above the gorge of the River Wye; the forested ridges and valleys of central Dean; the eastern ridges together with the lowlands between the Forest and the Severn; and the long-distance trails.

Hemmed in by two major rivers, the Severn and the Wye, the Forest of Dean is truly a land apart, with a distinctive landscape and a unique cultural identity. Encircling ridges and forested slopes give the central Forest a secretive quality, while the ridges above the Wye gorge and the Severn Vale offer sensational views and easy walking.

Historically annexed as a Royal Forest since before the Norman Conquest, it remained a protected hunting ground as well as a site for coal-mining and ironworks from Roman times to the Industrial Revolution. Now, the combination of secretive forests, rolling farmland and ridges above the Wye gorge and the Severn Vale provide excellent paths and spectacular views.

The result is a guidebook that offers all the information walkers need to enjoy a wide range of walking among the rolling countryside of the Forest of Dean.

• 21 day walks and 4 linear routes along long-distance trails, right across the Forest
• illustrated with OS map extracts
• with notes of historical and natural interest along the way

Every one of the routes included in this guide is covered on a single 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, Outdoor Leisure sheet 14 (Wye Valley & Forest of Dean), and it is recommended that this should be used to supplement the detail provided on the 1:50,000 map extracts which have been reproduced at 1:40,000 in this book. Many of the routes use forest roads and tracks, which may occasionally be closed because of forest operations.

Waymarking in the Forest of Dean is extremely variable, ranging from exemplary along the Offa’s Dyke Path national trail to unsatisfactory in a number of the less frequented parts of the area. Even some of the better-known routes, such as the Wysis Way, suffer from erratic waymarking, with signposting missing at a number of crucial points along the route. Some roadside signposts are missing, vandalised or badly sited, and waymarks in the deeper countryside are not provided in some crucial places. Gloucestershire County Council’s priority is to maintain roadside signposts rather than to waymark routes in the countryside, which is understandable because of resource constraints but can be deeply frustrating. Path problems can be reported online at www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/prow. Where problems exist a more detailed description of the path to be followed is given in the route description.

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