How small is the smallest pony you’ve ever seen? We saw a tiny one! Look at the bird standing just behind it and you’ll see how very small this pony was.
After many miles of road walking we were pleased, finally, to get off the tarmac and onto a woodland path. This path led us back south, out of Beaulieu and down to Buckler’s Hard.
Buckler’s Hard forms part of the Beaulieu Estate and is an 18th Century shipbuilding village situated on the south bank of the Beaulieu River. Three of the ships which fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 were built here. Today the entire village is a maritime museum. Every cottage in the terrace seemed to be a mini-museum in its own right: the Shipbuilder’s Cottage; the village pub; the chapel – the whole village was laid out to be explored.
But we were not here to explore. We passed through unseen and continued on our journey. We left this…
…and went back to this…
Take a deep breath, put your head down and plod on everyone – we’ll get through this…
Points on this part of the walk (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):
- Buckler’s Hard: N 50° 47.902 W 001° 25.270
Walk #69 Statistics (of which this post forms the sixth part):
- Date of Walk: 14 April 2014
- Walk #69 total distance covered: 16.91 miles
- Coast of Britain Walk Total Distance Covered: 593.35 miles
- CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!
The Coastal Path 
The walk between Beaulieu and Bucklers Hard is my favourite in the New Forest, particularly the path closest to the river. Bucklers Hard is also lovely although they (the Beaulieu estate, I presume) try to make you pay to go there. If you approach on the footpath from the other direction there is a rather snotty sign on the fence saying if you deviate from the footpath you must pay the admission charge.
Oh, I remember those roads. New Forest is not coastal-walker friendly. They could (and they should) do better!
I know exactly what you mean……
That’s useful – thanks for sharing! I’m still looking at the pony’s adorable picture, though 🙂