An extraordinary diversity of plants and animals
of international importance.
Why the Forest is special
The National Park’s special qualities
The New Forest National Park’s landscape is unique; it is a ‘living’ and working remnant of medieval England with an overwhelming sense of continuity, tradition and history.
It is the survival of not just one special quality but a whole range of features that brings a sense of completeness and integrity. Ancient woodland sits alongside open heath, free-roaming ponies graze land that has never been ploughed, and communities still practise traditions unchanged for centuries.
It is this rare combination, the feeling that nothing essential has been lost that sets the New Forest apart from anywhere else in the country. Here, the past is not preserved behind glass; it is simply still happening, still grazed and lived in, just as it has been for a thousand years.
Tranquillity
in the midst of the busy, built-up south of England.
