A night at Lime Wood
As autumn settles over the countryside, British Travel Journal escapes to Lime Wood for a restorative New Forest retreat.
As the car rumbled over a cattle grid and crossed into the New Forest, all signs of human life seemed to vanish. No buildings, no people — just wild ponies grazing nonchalantly at the roadside, some standing squarely in the middle looking rather indignant that I was in fact encroaching on their land.
Spanning southwest Hampshire and into Wiltshire, this extraordinary national park is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture, heathland and forest in southern England. Proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror and recorded in the Domesday Book, the New Forest remains a timeless landscape of endless greenery, ancient trees, and abundant wildlife. Particularly in autumn, as the leaves blaze with colour, it is incredibly beautiful. And tucked deep within it, proudly poised at the end of a sweeping drive and surrounded by elegant, sculpture-dotted gardens, lies the luxurious retreat that is Lime Wood...
