About the New Forest

In 1079 William the Conqueror created his ‘new’ royal hunting ground mainly for the pursuit of deer hunting. Since then, the unique landscape has been created from many years of ponies grazing, timber production and storms.

Today, the famous New Forest ponies happily feast on the acres of gorse and heather. The ponies live wild but are owned by local commoners who have rights of pasture for their animals.

Since we started renting bikes in 1993, cycling has become one of the main reasons for visiting the New Forest to explore the traffic-free waymarked trails.

These tracks are managed by the Forestry Commission to provide a safe cycling network which balances the needs of recreation and conservation. They are well maintained for all year round cycling and with over 100 miles available you will never feel like the tracks are overcrowded.

In order to preserve the Forest for future generations of visitors, it is important that cyclists stick to these well maintained tracks on the Crown Lands which is SSSI rated.

Our free new forest cycling app includes 5 of our most popular routes which can be downloaded onto a smartphone and will make sure you don’t get lost if map reading isn’t your thing!

The area around our base in Brockenhurst is mostly flat and we have 16 routes following trails and lanes connecting picturesque villages with plenty of pubs and cafes providing excellent refreshment stops. Choose any new forest cycle route and you are pretty much guaranteed to see ponies, cattle, wooded glades, rivers, traditional architecture and far reaching views across heather strewn landscapes.