Hamsterley Forest Visitor Centre

About Hamsterley Forest Visitor Centre

How to get there:

Hamsterley Forest Visitor Centre is in Hamsterley. Hamsterley, Witton-le Wear, Wolsingham, Bishop Auckland, and Durham are the nearest towns or villages.

Turn right in Hamsterley village following the brown tourist signs, turn left in hamlet of Bedburn to enter the forest and access the forest drive and car parks (£3 toll fee).

OS Grid Reference: NZ091312
For details of public transport visit http://www.transportdirect.info

What's on in Hamsterley

April

• Easter Trail
  Thursday 1 April 2010 to Sunday 18 April 2010
• Den Building
  Saturday 10 April 2010
  Saturday 10 July 2010
  Wednesday 4 August 2010
  Tuesday 24 August 2010
• Spring forager
  Sunday 25 April 2010

Facilities:

	A wide range of gifts and souvenirs are on sale in the shop including pottery, woodware and novelty items.
	Small tea room providing quality home cooked meals,cakes and preserves. Able to cater for large groups and birthday parties on request.
	Close by is the adventure play area which is accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs. The centre is the starting point for most of the forest trails, including three walks and three cycle routes.

Activities

	Yellow Walk (Bedburn) Orange Walk (Bedburn) Whisky Gill Walk Spurlswood Valley Walk Riverside Footpath (Bedburn)
	Blue Cycle Trail Red Cycle Trail 'The Loop' MTB skills area Grove Link Cycle Trail Black Cycle Trail
	Blue Horse Route Brown Route (Horse)
	Toll Road Hamsterley Forest Drive
	The ranger service is available to take guided educational visits for all levels and ages. Contact the visitor centre for details.
	Permanent orienteering course with 28 control points available for educational use via a booking system. Maps are on sale in the shop priced at £1-25.
	Four cycle routes catering for different ability levels, from short family trails to a severe black route for the experienced cyclist. A 20 mile trailquest course takes in the whole forest allowing keen cyclists to test their map reading skills. There is a new Down-hill mountain bike course run by local riders and the site manager with an annual membership required to use the site.

Contact:

User Comments

Name: Martin ()
6/Jan/2010

Reading about the forest has brought back childhood memories from our visits there in the late 1970's. Good to see the place is still popular.

Name: Anonymous ()
4/Nov/2009

The Visitor Centre displayed a notice saying that it was open until 4PM but was closed at 11AM The Cenic Drive was clearly stated on several notives to be open until 5PM. At 3PM we came up to a locked gate making it neccessary to reverse down a wet and slippery slope and turn round in muddy grass at the bottom. There was no prior warning that the road had been closed.A very poor way to treat visitors.

Name: Ian Muckle ()
22/Aug/2009

The cycle trails are superb, even better is finding your own trails and doing a bit of free riding with your mates. Wish people would take their litter home though and stop letting their dogs foul the trails.

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