10 British woodland wonders to discover this summer

If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a big… treat. Britain’s ancient forests are magical realms, carpeted with nodding bluebells and gleaming galaxies of anemones and celandines in spring, festooned with butterflies and dragonflies in summer, studded with mushrooms and toadstools in autumn.

It wasn’t ever thus. Our neolithic farming ancestors began clearing Britain’s forests some 5,000 years ago, a process accelerated after the arrival of the Normans. A century ago, woodland covered just 5 per cent of the UK’s land. Thankfully, ongoing conservation efforts are reversing the tide, and woodland areas have more than doubled in the past hundred years.

The latest project – announced in April – will restore seven ancient woods, all standing since at least the 17th century, in Hertfordshire and Middlesex.

To celebrate this win, we’ve chosen 10 of the most enchanting British woodlands to discover this year.

Astonbury Wood, Hertfordshire

Best for… bluebell blankets and fungi forays

Now undergoing restoration by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust as part of the newly announced project, this 54-acre patch just outside Stevenage is a compact treasure-chest of biodiversity. Fast-growing conifers planted in the 1950s are being removed to create clearings being recolonised by native broadleaf saplings, joining centuries-old oaks and hornbeams.

Amble the walking trails lacing the site, with an avian symphony soundtracking your stroll – the staccato percussion of greater spotted woodpeckers provides the backbeat to a chorus of songbirds. In late spring, while bluebells purple the shade, speckled wood butterflies bask in the sun; later in the year, an army of mushrooms sprouts – some 750 species have been recorded.

Stay: Hotel Cromwell Stevenage (cromwellstevenage.co.uk) has doubles from £84 per night, including breakfast.

Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire

Best for… ancient history and family fun

This ancient 42-square-mile swathe was for centuries bustling with activity that’s left evocative reminders of past lives: of the Iron Age communities who built defensive hillforts; of miners who hacked coal and iron from it since Roman times; of Anglo-Saxon kings hunting among its 20 million-plus trees; of Tudor foresters harvesting timber for shipbuilding.

Today, the Forest of Dean offers a little of everything: walking trails among those historic monuments, mountain-biking, horse-riding and thrilling wildlife-watching – peregrines, goshawks and hobbies hover and dive around Symonds Yat Rock, while fallow deer and wild boar forage among oak, beech and sweet chestnut. Kids love Puzzlewood, the otherworldly forestscape of moss-velveted rocks and walkways that reputedly inspired Tolkien.

Stay: Tudor Farmhouse Hotel (tudorfarmhousehotel.co.uk) has doubles from £139 per night including breakfast; wildlife safaris from £60 per person, foraging experiences from £90 per person.

Fforest Fawr, near Cardiff

Best for… family-friendly fairytales and urban escapes

A veritable menagerie inhabits this enticing retreat just a short hop from the Welsh capital: lynx, wolf, red deer, otter and all manner of other creatures – not to mention a wizard and Gruffalo – peering from the bluebells and wild garlic. They’re all carved from wood, of course, and set along a sculpture trail that delights younger visitors.

But Fforest Fawr is a delight for all, pocked by the remains of historic mines creating curious lumps and hollows, as well as the disused haematite workings known as the Three Bears Cave. Also enchanting for visitors of all statures is Castell Coch, a glorious cut-and-shut of 13th-century stronghold with faux-medieval Victorian fancy.

Stay: New House Hotel (townandcountrycollective.co.uk) has doubles from £140 per night, including breakfast.

Baluain Wood, Perthshire

Best for… fall foliage and poetic torrents

A tumbling waterfall is a magnificent spectacle – and even more so if surrounded by trees. So contested Robert Burns, anyway. Having visited the Falls of Bruar in 1787, he penned a “humble petition” to the landowner, requesting that “To grant my highest wishes, He’ll shade my banks wi’ tow’ring trees”. The fourth Duke of Atholl obliged, planting some 120,000 larch and Scots pine. Time your visit after heavy rain to admire the cascades at their most dramatic, or from September when they’re framed in blazing autumn hues.

Stay: The Old Manse of Blair (theoldmanseofblair.com) has doubles from £249 per night, including breakfast.

Horner Wood, Somerset

Best for… ancient oaks and shady coombes

Beneath the lowering heights of Dunkery Beacon unfurls one of Britain’s largest and most beautiful oakwoods, an 800-odd-acre expanse of moss- and lichen-verdigrised veteran trees. Its sheer-sided coombes are carved by streams in which dippers do their insect-bobbing dance, joined in summer by wood warblers and pied flycatchers.

These woods are made for walking: follow the romantic Coleridge Way south from Porlock, crossing the 17th-century humpbacked packhorse bridge to wind along dappled paths to Webber’s Post for sweeping views back across the emerald hills and onto the moor, then descend into East Water Valley to find “The General”, a martial oak who’s stood sentinel here for five centuries or more.

Stay: Locanda on the Weir (locandaontheweir.co.uk) has doubles from £225 per night, including breakfast; two-night minimum stay.

Kielder Forest, Northumberland

Best for… birds of prey and starry skies

England’s largest forest, cradling the UK’s biggest artificial lake, encompasses 200-plus square miles of spruce, pine and a frankly labyrinthine network of walking and cycling trails. It’s the perfect place to lose yourself, though you’re never truly alone. England’s biggest single population of red squirrels skitter along trunks and boughs, while ospreys have nested here since 2009; in summer you might witness these magnificent raptors hunting fish in the lake.

This is also one of the country’s best stargazing sites, set within the wider Northumberland Dark Sky Park; Kielder Observatory showcases the Milky Way’s shimmering celestial scarf draped across the heavens.

Stay: The Pheasant Inn (thepheasantinn.com) has doubles from £155 per night, including breakfast.

Mabie Forest, Dumfries and Galloway

Best for… mountain biking and butterfly bonanzas

Capping a clump of hills just south-west of Dumfries, this mosaic of Sitka spruce plantation, ancient oak woodland, wetland and grassy expanses attracts mountain bikers to its world-class 7stanes trails complex, with options ranging from beginner-friendly routes and a skills area to testing tracks snaking through the woods. Wander on foot, though, to encounter a range of wildlife, both shy – roe deer, red squirrels, nightjars – and less so: this important sanctuary for butterflies and moths hosts more than two-thirds of Scotland’s native species, some highly endangered, including the rare pearl-bordered fritillary.

Stay: Brockloch Treehouse (canopyandstars.co.uk) costs from £180 per night; two-night minimum stay.

Hackfall Wood, Yorkshire

Best for… romantic follies and artistic inspiration

All is not quite as it seems in this ancient semi-natural woodland lining the southern bank of the Ure. Gnarled sessile oaks speak of great age, now interspersed with wych elm, sycamore, rowan, ash and silver birch. But those moss-greened ruins peering out from the greenery aren’t actually the remains of Roman temples or medieval bastions.

Rather, they’re the creations of William Aislabie who, from the mid-18th century, created a fantastical landscape garden of Gothic follies, grottoes, waterfalls and fountains that inspired Wordsworth and Turner. Today you can roam nearly 120 acres of woodland and riverine habitat, watching (and listening) for kingfishers, wood warblers, tree creepers and a host of butterflies on summer days.

Stay: The Ruin at Hackfall (landmarktrust.org.uk), sleeping two, costs from £416 for four nights.

Hafren Forest, Powys

Best for… crashing cascades and accessible trails

Unlike ancient woodlands lauded here, Hafren Forest dates back only to the 1930s, when spruce and pine were planted on former upland sheep-farms. The story of the land beneath, though, stretches back far into the distant past, before Bronze-Age miners dug for copper and lead, before prehistoric inhabitants raised a standing stone, to the epochs during which the nascent River Severn carved its course through the rock to create waterfalls and crashing rapids.

Among the numerous paths and tracks criss-crossing the forest and leading to the cataracts, notably the evocatively named Severn-Break-its-Neck and Blaen Hafren Falls Trails, several stretches are accessible to littler legs, buggies and wheelchair users.

Stay: Ty Capel B&B (tycapelbandb.co.uk) has doubles from £100 per night, including breakfast.

Grizedale Forest, Cumbria

Best for… active adventures and alfresco art

This 6,000-acre expanse of Sitka spruce and other conifers blanketing much of the fells between Windermere and Coniston Water is tailor-made for outdoor adventures. No fewer than seven colour-graded mountain-bike trails lace the hillsides, offering hours of cross-country and downhill action – and an art lesson en route, thanks to more than 50 sculptures installed across the forest over the past half-century.

Horse-riding, hiking and high-wire experiences also tweak the adrenaline glands. But keep at least one eye peeled for flashes of russet in the gloaming: Grizedale is home to red kites, red squirrels and England’s only surviving woodland red deer herd.

Stay: Grizedale Camping (grizedale-camping.co.uk) has a shepherd’s hut and yurts from £60 per night, plus camping pods from £35 per night; two-night minimum stay.