Walking in the Forest of Dean

Overview map

Introduction

Geology and landscape

Plants and wildlife

The impact of man

Getting to and around the Forest

Where to stay

What to take

Maps and waymarking

Using this guide

1 Above the River Wye

Walk 1 Around the northern ridges

Walk 2 Biblins and Yat Rock

Walk 3 The Stones of Staunton

Walk 4 Dean’s Cathedral and the old Wye

Walk 5 Across the Hudnalls

Walk 6 To the Devil’s Pulpit

Walk 7 Woolaston Common

2 The Heart of the Forest

Walk 8 Speculation and the northern collieries

Walk 9 Bixslade and Cannop Ponds

Walk 10 Nagshead and Dark Hill

Walk 11 Parkend to Blakeney

Walk 12 The Sculpture Trail

Walk 13 New Fancy and the Speech House

Walk 14 Mallards Pike

Walk 15 Soudley Ponds and Blaize Bailey

Walk 16 The Soudley Rural Geology Trail

3 Eastern Dean and Severn Shore

Walk 17 May Hill

Walk 18 Littledean and Welshbury

Walk 19 Longhope and Flaxley

Walk 20 Newnham and Bullo Pill

Walk 21 The Awre Peninsula and the Old Severn Bridge

4 The Long-distance Trails

Walk 22 Offa’s Dyke Path

Walk 23 The Gloucestershire Way in the western Forest

Walk 24 The Gloucestershire Way through central Dean

Walk 25 The Wysis Way

Appendix A Route summary table

Appendix B Useful contacts

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.

March 2021

Route 19 (Longhope and Flaxley)

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