New Forest Walks
Ashley Walk Car Park to Fritham (8miles)
This walk was done in the middle of February so there was not much in the way of wildlife but the scenery was very varied and the hills although moderate in height provide some exercise.
Setting out from the Ashley Walk car park the path descends quite steeply towards the bridge over the Ditchend brook. The path is well marked and the way ahead is clearly visible up the other side of the ‘Blackgutter’ valley. When the path levels out continue ahead ignoring side tracks and eventually the gorse bushes give way to more substantial trees before entering Pitts Wood inclosure. New Forest ponies and cattle tend to congregate on the heath before the inclosure and horse riders are a common sight on the weekend.
Follow the path through the wood crossing a bridge over a stream and upon emerging from the wood an old cast iron sign may be seen on the left of the path indicating when the area was enclosed. A number of paths merge at this point but the route continues left along the cycle track which is marked with a wooden cycle path sign. This path runs along the side of the Amberwood inclosure before it enters the inclosure itself and drops downhill between the trees. Much of this area is deciduous oak or beech trees which have been managed to provide pleasant open woodland.
Follow the main path through the woods, again ignoring paths to the right or left, and eventually the trees thin out and you get a glimpse of the fields around Eyeworth Lodge. There follows an uphill gradient under power lines towards Fritham and the car park. You can stop at the ‘Royal Oak’ pub for a meal and drink but they don’t like you to eat your sandwiches on the premises, not even in the beer garden, so we usually sit on the bench by the village green.
We continued our walk along the tarmac road towards Eyeworth pond which at this point is a single track road going downhill so you have to be aware of cars coming up behind. The pond is a man made feature but there are usually some interesting wildfowl on the pond. At the time we were there twelve Goosanders, both male and female, were swimming and diving quite close to the bank. We were also attracted to several Canada Geese who started calling and two more came in to land on the water flying no more than three metres above our heads.
The next part of the walk is largely over unmarked paths so a map and compass is useful but not essential. We continued along the road past Eyeworth pond until the road ends at the entrance to the last building of Eyeworth Lodge. The end of the road is marked by a gate barrier and a minor track goes to the right of the gate. We however walked to the left of the gate following a faint track along the fenced edge of Eyeworth Lodge. The object is to walk in a north westerly direction through the woods to meet up with the main path along the western edge of the woods so at a corner of the fence we follow the faint track which goes through a break in the inclosure boundary. The boundary at this point is a mound of earth about a metre high. Continuing in this direction we come to a gravel track with a deer fenced enclosure over the other side. Crossing the road we kept the fence to our left until it turned away and maintaining the same direction we came across the Latchmoor brook which we followed on our right. After a short distance we came to a small bridge with a small gravel path which we took to go over the bridge to our right.
The rest of the path through the woods is simply a matter of keeping straight along this path as it is crossed by other tracks, rides and firebreaks. Eventually the path goes uphill and emerges from the woods from where we continue ahead until we turn left onto the main gravel path from Telegraph hill to Ashley ridge.
This path can be followed until it meets the cycle path that we followed on the outward journey but if we take a right turn after some gorse bushes the view over towards Godshill is much more rewarding. The track is not all that distinct but is the only one to the right and rejoins the cycle path between Amberwood and Pitts Wood inclosures. From here we retrace our outward path back to the car park with the unfortunate bonus of a hill climb at the finish. At least we have the benefit of a good view over the route we have taken.