North East England Forest District covers a wide geographical area and provides a range of recreational facilities and opportunities for over 700 000 visitors each year.
The key areas are:
- Kielder Forest in the North Tyne Valley, where there are 50000 hectares of woodlands, a forest visitor centre at Kielder Castle and a number of walks, cycle trails, picnic places, a forest classroom and a forest drive. Visitors to Kielder Water & Forest Park are split between day visitors from Tyneside, and holidaymakers from as far afield as SE England and continental Europe. Latest estimates of visitors per annum to the park is just over 350,000 visits
- Hamsterley Forest in Co Durham is a 2000 hectare woodland and the busiest recreation area in the forest district. Visitors are largely day trippers from Wearside and Teeside. At Hamsterley there is a small visitor centre and shop, a forest classroom, a range of walking and cycling trails and a forest drive. Latest estimates of visitors per annum to Hamsterley Forest is just over 170,000 visits
- Chopwell Woodland Park in Tyne and Wear is a woodland of some 350 hectares which is very much an urban recreational area with most of the 180,000 visitors being local residents enjoying the woods for walking, cycling and horse riding. Chopwell also has a forest classroom.
- Rothbury Forests. These are a number of woodlands in NE Northumberland - Simonside, Thrunton Wood, Hepburn Wood and Wooler Common are popular with locals and day visitors from Tyneside.
Facilities
The Forestry Commission in the NE provides a wide range of facilities for visitors. Charges are made at Kielder and Hamsterley for forest drives and car parking. Access to the visitor centres is free as is the use of walking, cycling and horse riding trails. Many of our walking and cycling trails leaflets describing the routes are available from the visitor centres.
The visitor centres at Kielder and Hamsterley each have an interpretive display, a forest shop and a tea room.
Toilet facilities are provided at both visitor centres.
- Walking – There is open access for walkers on all Forestry Commission land and this is by far the most popular recreational activity. For those who prefer to follow waymarked trails the North East has a large number of trails designed to meets all needs from short walks around 1km suitable for families with young children to demanding routes up to 20km for the keener walkers.
- Cycling – The fastest growing user group on Forestry Commission land. Forest tracks provide ideal conditions for mountain bikers. Access along most tracks is allowed although there may be some restrictions due to timber harvesting. There are purpose built singletrack trails at both Kielder and Hamsterley. Kielder Water & Forest Park has a full range of mountain bike trails from green graded easy cycling through to orange extreme bike park for extreme riding. As with walking a range of waymarked trails are available to suit all needs.There are cycle hire facilities at Kielder and Hamsterley
- Horse Riding – The Forestry Commission agreed a concordat with the British Horse Society in 1999 allowing open access to a number of woodlands. Most woods, which are owned freehold by the Forestry Commission, are open for horse riding. At Hamsterley Forest and Chopwell Wood, Horse Riding Associations were established in 1999 to replace the permit system yet retain close links with horse riders in these busy forests.
Events
There is a huge variety of organised specialist events. Some have now
become annual events such as the Vintage Vehicle rally, the Montane 100 and the Kielder Marathon (a unique challenge to run the Lakeside Way). Some are smaller more bespoke such as fungal forays
Services
Both of the main centres, Kielder and Hamsterley has a full time recreation ranger who is able to offer education services to the 3000+ children who visit the forest district annually. Hamsterley also takes on a seasonal recreation ranger from April to October to help with facility inspections and events during the tourist season. The forest district also has a year round events programme which offers guided walks on topics such as the working forest, fungus forays and the night sky.
Community Involvement
At Chopwell, Slaley and Wooler Common there are local ‘friends of’ groups run jointly by local people and Forestry Commission staff. The aims of these groups vary, but the outcome is improvements in facilities for the local woodland users.
At Kielder, along with Northumberland Council and Northumbrian Water, the Forestry Commission is a major contributor to the ‘Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust’ whose aim is to promote and market the Kielder area and to raise funds to improve the facilities and marketing in order to increase visitor numbers. This has a local spin off in the creation of jobs and bringing money into the local economy.
