Stansted Forest
Stansted Forest is a large mixed ancient woodland of approximately 1177 acres straddling the Hampshire/West Sussex border on the South Downs, within Stansted Park Estate near Rowlands Castle. It is a remnant of the most westerly point of the ancient forest of Arundel, comprising an approximate three-way split between conifer, broadleaf, and coppice woodland.
Area: 364.2 ha
Region: Surrey area
Address: Stansted Forest, Rowland's Castle PO9, UK
Website: group.rspb.org.uk/chichester/local-wild-places/stansted-forest
🧭 Get directionsOpening hours
Forest car parks: 8am–5pm daily. Stansted House: Sun–Tue, 1pm–5pm (Easter to end of September). Grounds and Walled Garden: open all year. Pavilion Tearoom: 9am–5pm daily. Farm Shop: 10am–4pm daily.
Best for
Walking, cycling, wildlife watching, and experiencing a managed ancient woodland with heritage landscape features
Wildlife
Rich in wildlife including winter thrushes, marsh tit, firecrest, spotted flycatcher, crossbill, nightjars, woodlarks, and hobby. Six species of orchid occur in woodlands. Moths and butterflies well represented including scarce species like mervielle du jour and purple emperor. Abundant deadwood habitat supports tanner beetle and rare fungi including Phylotopsis nidulans. Fallow and roe deer present; muntjac recorded increasingly. Barn owls breed regularly. Grey squirrels present and controlled.
History
Forest sits within designed historic landscape with features including Main Avenue (begun early 1680s), Shooting Ride, and patte d'oie design from estate centre. Capability Brown influenced landscape design in 1781. Estate underwent careful restoration since 1990s. Estate encompasses 1800 acres of parkland and ancient forest.
Reviews
Well managed forest with good walking routes throughout. Sadly the car parks are height restricted and smaller cars tend to use the roadside parking meaning it can be difficult for higher vehicles to park at all. Another negative is some of the large groups of dogs with walkers that are badly controlled and shouted at which can be intrusive and intimidating when trying to enjoy a quiet walk ones self. Lots of mushrooms, chestnuts, acorns, hazelnuts, dead wood, bluebells, leaf litter and moss tha
Very nice place for few hours walking, plenty of wildlife to see
Always a good walk. Shame all the Ash trees attacked by Ash dieback disease. Good to see loads of trees replanted. It is a well managed woodland with the head keeper putting up information about what's happening in the woods. Rescued a young deer from a dog. He was ok, just shocked with a bit of fur loss on his back.