Hamsterley Forest - Forestry England — Attraction in South Bedburn

*Note - I didn't try the Café or or the pop-up hut which sells Pizza. I will be next time I go so the review will be updated then.

Walking Conditions were dry & frozen (-1 to - 2)woth no difficulty from ice etc.

Beautiful dog friendly location in North Yorkshire. Pretty easy to get to although you will need to drive. Plenty of parking spaces, clean free public toilets and charges were reasonable (£7 from 09.55 to 12.50 PM) with contactless payment. There aren't any wash stations for dogs so bring towels etc as required. Plenty of spots at the river next to the car park where you can give them a dunk if they get too muddy.

There are also lots of areas to stop & have a picnic or packed lunch at the beginning/end & throughout the walk. Bins at these spots were lacking so remember to take rubbish back to the car park where there are plenty.

Great choice of walking trails for all levels of experience & fitness but if you are an experienced walker looking for a challenge you won't find it here. Did the Three Becks walk which is 4.5 Km (the longest one available & rated moderate - there isn't anything rated above moderate) with a couple of fairly steep climbs. I would expect to do this in around 2 hours or less with other walkers of little to no experience & below averge/average fitness.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and the dog absolutely loved it with plenty of trees, bushes, ditches & streams for them to explore.

Foot traffic was very light on the trail (10.15 - 12.30 Sunday) and there are only a couple of small sections which require dogs to be on leads. Mountain Biking (not something I do so won't be covering it in this review) is also extremely popular but these sections were clearly marked & everyone was very friendly.

There is also a Gruffalo Hunt and nature trails with a couple of shorter (2.5 Km) routes designed for families & kids of all ages. There would be no difficulty in taking a pram along these either.

Will...

Credit where credits due. They've definitely changed it around and added more things, the new play parks are good and nicely spread out, they've built a new cafe which is small but nice, but VERY expensive - nearly £3 for a tiny coffee! Also the cafe isn't wheelchair accessible, there is a ramp to it but inside they have put as many tables in as possible which makes it very hard to get around with a buggy and near impossible if not impossible with a wheelchair. The disabled toilet is a non disabled toilet in a large room, even with a red cord card on the red cord it was still purposfully tangled inside the handle! They must have spent a lot on the new 'smart' fancy hand drier and it's inaccessible to a wheelchair user! Also the corridor to the toilets was being used as a store space! Outside the walks are nice and have a good verity of trails. The car parking was £2.00 for 1hr, £5.50 2hrs (I can't remember the other prices) which I think is a bit cheaky! £5.50 for 2hrs parking, £3 each for a cuppa and on average £5 for food. (£6 for half a pizza, £10 for a full one.) You're looking at £20+ for two people which in this day and age isn't affordable! I would love to be able to say more positive things about this place. Compared to similar places like Low Barns where the parking is £2.50 and hot food and a drink is about £5 for the two, here is much more expensive! Especially in this day and age where we're trying to encourage people outside and to be active! 1 star off for the wheelchair inaccessibility and 1 off for the prices. Oh and they only stamp one circle off the loyalty card per order not per drink! Not that I expected it, some might - no...

These are my local Mtb trails, and I'd say their pretty good. There are some near the main carpark and there's some at the grove car park. ( which is a 2 mile bike to the other trails.

It costs 8 pounds for a day, but there are cheers options if you stay for less time. The parking is packed most of the time, but if you get there early, there are hundreds of spaces.

There's a good skills loop, which is basically like a teaser for the actual trails. It's good to get used to the climb and the downhill with lots of blue, red, and black options.

The red trails take a bit of a while to get to, but their 100% worth it, in my opinion. It takes me 8 minutes to get to the top on my ebike and 25 mins on my enduro bike. They have 4 good trails that range from jumps and berms to techy rock gardens. Everything is easy to roll over if you don't want to do the other stuff.

You can get to the first black from the main car park. The climb to this one is shorter than the reds, and it gets you to pike teeth. This trail starts out techy and then turns into berms and jumps. After that, there's a blue trail called squirrel chaser that leads you down to a bridge. When you cross the bridge, turn right and follow this trail. It's long, but it's a very fun one, and you just need to follow it from now on.

There are a number of facilities here but they are all as expected. I'd recommend everyone to come here. Café 7/10. Toilets 8/10....