to Forestry Commission home page
to England home page

Explore The Knightwood Oak
(Average user rating: 4 unrated 3.5/5)

A short walk from Knightwood Oak car park, aKnightwood Oak. New Forest gravel track (suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs) leads to the largest and perhaps the most famous oak tree in the New Forest.

The Knightwood Oak is the largest oak in the New Forest, at 7.4m girth, and surely one of the oldest.

 It is still going strong today and is a spectacular example of the ancient art of 'pollarding', the traditional way of harvesting wood without killing the tree.

A shady spot to bring a picnic, 'get away from it all' and try to imagine what it would have been like over 400 years ago when this tree began to grow.

Knightwood Oak Podcast

Take your very own 'ranger' out in the New Forest by downloading the Knightwood Oak Podcast for your MP3 player by clicking here.

What do other visitors say?

3 Stars 3 Stars

A return visit, after quite a few years. I hoped that as a family we'd wrap our arms around the tree - pity that you can't do that! Otherwise, I guess it will be nicer later in spring / summer - we'll be back for a picnic.

Peter, 31/Mar/2013

Spectacular tree! but would have liked to have known about the trees history whilst stood infront of it ( could not find any information about it until we got home and accessed the internet !

Jammydodger, 28/Jan/2013

It is great that you found the Knightwood Oak so rewarding a visit. It is a fantastic tree! When you say you found no information about the tree on site, I can only assume you didn't walk around the tree. There are two information panels there. The first tells you about the wildlife value of oaks such as the Knightwood. The second is to be found on the other side and tells you a little about its history. The reason it is a bit further around is that it features a photograph from 1900 and you can make a direct comparison between life and the tree as it was then. We understand that it is unfortunate the first panel a visitor comes across does not introduce the tree directly. We have recognised this error. The panels are now very old and we intend to replace them before very long. In the new panels, we intend to say more about the history of the oak upfront and still have the photo comparison on the second panel. So please, watch out for new information in the future. In the meantime, I'm glad you found more information about the tree from the internet. Thank you for your comments, they are quite timely.

Forestry Commission Response
5 Stars 5 Stars

stunning tree kids loved it

the woods family, 22/Aug/2010
More user comments

Please tell us about your visit

Please email us at enquiries.southern@forestry.gsi.gov.uk if you have an enquiry or would like a reply to your comments.

Email addresses will not be shown
Please help us reduce the amount of spam we receive by entering the following characters in upper or lower case without the quotes into the box below: "HCK"
 

Chalara ash dieback

Advice for visitors

What's Here?

  • Parking
  • Walking
    • A short walk from Knightwood Oak car park, a gravel track (suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs) leads to the largest and perhaps the most famous oak tree in the New Forest.
More about what's here

Location

OS Grid ref: SU 264 062

Get directions

Contact

General Enquiries

023 8028 3141
enquiries.southern@­forestry.gsi.gov.uk

PDF Downloads

Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification certifiedForest Stewardship Council certified