Exploring Sherwood Pines

Hugely accessible from Yorkshire, this great forest has plenty to keep you occupied for a day out. It’s fab for families on bikes, but also has lots to offer families on foot!

Sherwood-pines

Website: https://www.forestryengland.uk/sherwood-pines

Parking: £6 all day, £4 if you squeeze it into two hours!

Pushchairs: Gritted paths mean routes we used were for pushchairs.

Facilities: Next to the visitor centre there are excellent toilet facilities (changing area in toilets too) as well as a cafe serving takeaway food.

Family walks at Sherwood Pines

On our first visit to Sherwood Pines, we’d promised Jess the Zog trail, and got her excited in the car by re-reading the story, so on arrival there was no question of doing anything else first! The activity pack was £3 and included a Zog face mask, stickers, activity booklet and animal reveal.

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The trail itself was relatively short, so perfect for little walkers (but don’t expect it to take too long). Activities are a combination of Zog related questions (spot the dragons) and nature questions that get children to think and engage with their surroundings.

Sherwood-pines

Certain activities are done to reward yourself with a star sticker from the activity pack. Jess is a massive fan of stickers so this went down a treat!

Zog-trail

After the trail we found a picnic bench (there were plenty) for lunch. We sat next to a large field where families were playing ball games and running round, a great space.

Sherwood-Pines-walks

Refuelled, we set off to do one of the two walking trails. The Dragonfly walk is just 1mile on gritted paths, and the Nightjar trail is 3miles, suitable for off-road pushchairs. They are super easy to follow (Jess was our leader) with marked coloured posts and plenty of benches dotted around the pretty woodland.

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The Family Cycle Trail at Sherwood Pines

Our second visit to Sherwood Pines was a somewhat wetter affair, and we took Jess’s bike with us this time. She’s only a month into riding without stabilisers, so we settled on trying the three mile Family Cycle Trail. Bike hire is available at Sherwood Pines (pre-booking not required).

Sherwood-Pines-Family-bike

There are clear green numbered markers that take you around the route, so you don’t need a map and there is little possibility that you could take a wrong turn. The paths are great for bikes, buggies and wheelchairs. We walked next to Jess as she cycled, so we’re able to help her with the uphills and downhills, although overall it was fairly flat.

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There were picnic benches dotted around the track, with one near the start and one towards the end under cover.

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Also at Sherwood Pines

For Jess, walking without whinging is often for the bribe of a good play area at the end. Luckily we had a few to choose from, with a mixture of climbing, exploring, den building and sandpits! Update: currently closed during covid.

Sherwood-pines

Other activities that we didn’t try but that are available are;

  • The Gruffalo Orienteering Trail (£1.50 for the map) which is a really simple beginners orienteering course where you find 12 markers (although the link to the Gruffalo is only really by name)
  • Finding Gruffalo sculptures dotted about the woodland
  • Nets Adventure, which looked a bit ambitious for Jess, basically looked like huge trampolines with balls suspended in the air.
  • Go Ape
  • Blue and red cycle trails

We’ve had two great days exploring Sherwood Pines, and are looking forward to returning to find new delights!

If you enjoy walking in forests and woodlands, you may enjoy reading these blog posts about other places we’ve visited in these environments.

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