Beechenhurst

Visiting us this Easter?
Then you might be able to save money by getting a discovery pass membership. Costing just £35 for a whole year and you’ll be able to visit as many times as you like!
Become a member and save money ➡ forestryeng.land/forest-membership

If you are planning on visiting the vintage fun fair this weekend be sure to stop off at the cash machine before arriving.
The Great British fun fair team are struggling with the signal for their mobile card machines so to avoid disappointment make sure you bring some cash with you.
Have a fun an memorable Easter, we have loved seeing your photos of you enjoying the rides!

SUNDAY 21ST APRIL:
Advanced Warning of the Bluebell Horse Riding Event by Offas Dyke Group of Endurance Great Britain
This will be taking place on parts of the Sculpture Trail, Family Cycle Trail and surrounding areas, so please be vigilant throughout the day and keep your dogs under control and on a lead. Please adhere to marshalls who will be out on the course.
... Thank You
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Did you know, The Great British Funfair has the oldest travelling Ferris wheel in the UK and the Swing Boats are nearly 200 years old!
Be sure not to miss out on the fair this Easter holiday, open until the 22nd April 11am to 5pm.
Card payments are accepted but signal for the machine isn't always possible, so bring cash with you to avoid any disappointment as there are no cash machines on site.... www.greatbritishfunfair.co.uk
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The Vintage Fair Team have arrived at Beechenhurst and here are a few amazing pictures of the rides built so far ready for the opening on Saturday .

Roll up Roll up, the funfair is in town.
We are celebrating our centenary this year and we have gone all nostalgic here at Beechenhurst. We have the pleasure of hosting The Great British Funfair. With family favourites such as the Helter Skelter, Ferris Wheel and Carousel.
Come and reminisce with us this Easter.
... The Vintage Fair will be onsite daily 11am - 5pm.
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Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail unveiled Threshold today. We love this new Sculpture created by Natasha Rosling.
It's inspired from the history of mining in the Forest of Dean and cast from the walls of Clearwell Caves.
What do you think?
... #Forests100 #Beechenhurst #DeanWye #Sculpture #Arts
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Zog Trail and beginning of the Sculpture Trail CLOSED: 5th April 2019
We have closed the Zog Trail and Sculptures 1 (Dead Wood/Bois Mort) and 2 (Heart of Stone) due to timber harvesting works. They will be back open tomorrow!
... Apologies for any inconvenience caused if you were planning to do the zog trail today, and thank you for your patience.
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We had another fantastic session for the Early Years Forest Fun sessions at Beechenhurst yesterday and the weather stayed nice for us! The session was themed around bunnies but a lot of the children focused on bug hunting and the mud kitchen 🐰🌳🌲
Thank you to everyone who came along. If you have any pictures from the session or comments on what you would like to see in future sessions please do post them in the comments below, we'd love to see them! 😁
Keep an eye on the Beeche...nhurst Facebook page for details of further sessions after the Easter break.
#childrenoutdoors #explorenature #Beechenhurst #ForestofDean #DeanWye
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Forest of Dean Adventure's climbing tower opens on Saturday.
Have you had a go? How high did you get?
We'd love to see your pictures.
... #Beechenurst #DeanWye
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Today we become Forestry England.
In our centenary year, this marks the start of an exciting new chapter as we look forward to the next 100 years in the Forest of Dean.
Forestry Commission Woods and Forests looks after more land and more trees than any other organisation and we are pleased to be changing so we can work together to help the nations forests flourish.
... Get the details on why we’re changing > forestryeng.land/fe-rebrand
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Flying pig seen at Beechenhurst Play Park.

Sculpture Trail Diversion Due to recent harvesting Sculpture 1 (Dead Wood) is closed and a diversion is in place. The diversion ends at Sculpture 2 (Heart of Stone).
Harvesting work will continue on Monday 1st April 2019. The remainder of the trail is open but there may be disrupted access at times.
... Please adhere to bankspersons and safety signage.
Thank You
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The majority of Beechenhurst Play Park is now OPEN
Come and join us at Beechenhurst and let us know what you think of our new play equipment. We know you are going to love it as much as we do.
A big thank you to all the play park suggestions that come in from our valued visitors at the begining of the project and to Earth Wrights and TJ Contracting for bringing your ideas to life.
... Our new mine tunnel and double slide will be open for the Easter holidays as the turf needs time to establish . Our new inclusive swing will be open next week as we are making some changes as suggested by ROSPA.
Thank you for all your support and patience.
Have fun
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A Big thank you to ROSPA who have inspected our new play equipment. We are now proud to say that the Toddler Play Park is NOW open .
We have a few recommendations from ROSPA to complete before we can open the Junior Play Park. The team at TJ Contracting are working hard completing the final touches to have the park open as soon as we can . Please keep checking for updates
Many Thanks
... Beechenhurst Ranger
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🌳Timber harvesting at Beechenhurst 🌲
Harvesting works are starting today Wednesday 20th March 2019 at the begining of the Sculpture Trail and surrounding woodlands at Beechenhurst.
We have a couple of different types of works happening which we thought you might like to know about.
... The first is called thinning. Thinning means we survey the trees and select some trees for removal, this creates more room for the remaining trees to grow big and healthy by reducing competition between them for light, water and nutrients.
We will also be clearfelling some small areas. Clearfelling means we remove all the trees in a small area, then replant. These particular trees are Corsican pine and Japanese larch. Unfortunately these trees are diseased. The Corsican pine is infected with Dosthistroma Needle Blight which causes the trees to lose their needles and eventually die and the Japanese larch is at risk to Phytopthora ramorum –which is a highly contagious disease that has already been confirmed in other parts of the Forest of Dean and has meant that we have had to clearfell some large areas of the forest in order to stop it spreading.
We have taken the decision to remove these trees before they get infected, so we can replant with trees that will be more resilient to pests and diseases.
All this will produce timber that will be put to good use and will be used for many different things, such as wooden beams for building houses, logs for firewood and fence posts.
Please remember Forestry operations are dangerous, so we ask that you help us whilst this work is underway by keeping away from working machinery, and by following any diversions or instructions provided.
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We love Beechenhurst. Great place to take your kids to tire them out. Our daughter loves the park and we all love it when there are trails on. Today we all enjoyed the Gruffalo Spotter trail. Awesome!

The kids loved the zipwire in the park and the Gruffulo walk. Download the app for photos with the characters from the story as you go round. Everythng you need in one place. The homemade cakes are gorgeous in the cafe.

Lovely place.. did most of the sculpture trail and the kids loved it. Stopped at Cafe for cake whilst the kids played in park. Well worth a visit.

Had a lovely time at Beechenhurst yesterday. Fantastic play area for the kids. Lovely cafe and thought paths were really well maintained. Would like better signage for trails - couldn't find the nature reserve trail but will try again on another visit.

Had a fabulous day yesterday with my daughter and friend, doing the gruffalo spotting trail! Lovely clean site (expensive car parking, although if you are making a full day of it then it's fine!) Lovely restaurant and friendly staff! We will definately be back to do the go ape and explore all the other trails in the holidays!

Great place for the family. Gruffalo trail, play area, cafe, sculpture trail, beautiful forest and much much more. Great value only pay for parking, baby changing and pram friendly, will definitely be back.

Great Gruffalo Trail for the kids. About 2 miles of walking through woodland, ideal distance for little people. Download the Gruffalo Spotter App to bring the Gruffalo & friends to life. The playground & cafe are also fab.

First time visiting beechenhurst the great outdoors at its best. Loved the sculpture trail except only saw a third of the trail. Toddler with tired legs!! Will definitely be back to explore more. Perfect for a crisp Autumn afternoon.

We came to give our twin daughters their birthday treat at Go Ape Tree Top Juniors. Excellent friendly, well-trained staff; beautiful environment and a thoroughly enjoyable day.

This is a wonderful place to visit. Lots of things to do, nice park, large green, café, public toilets go ape, climbing wall and beautiful walks (though we really miss the big chair).

It would have 5 stars if the parking wasn't so expensive when public transport isnt an option.

The parking is expensive (£3 for minimum 2 hrs) for a lunch stop as we are local. The Highway Rat trail was enjoyable for my six year old, however the paths to the search items are really muddy and we both slipped over in the mud, so be careful! It added to the overall fun of the day tho. My best lunch has to be their Gloucester Rarebit with mushrooms- exactly how a rarebit should be! (And part of the reason for the lunch stop) Well done Sophie, Lauren and Sarah on serving us all so well on such a busy day today. Thanks.

Managed to get around two thirds of the sculpture trail before aching feet and a need for a sit down by the grandchildren. Stopped off at the cafe, what an amazing selection on cakes and drinks for an afternoon pick me up. Looking forward to returning to finish off the walk.

Lovely walk around the sculpture trail yesterday, love the upgrade to the cafe. Been to Beechenhurst many times and we love it, perfect for our toddler! Hoping to see some upgrades to the toilet facilities soon too.

A lovely place to stroll round. There could be more signs in places to help people round the trail though. I agree with previous comments about the cafe prices being quite high. However, the facilities are good for this type of 'attraction.' Something for just about everyone to enjoy.

Went along here today as sunny and moving to the area soon. Loved the Forest and all the walks. Unfortunately the play area hugely lets this down. Not enough to do,just felt full of boring wood,old and antiquated play equipment. It was fairly busy today so I dread to think what it would be like in the summer. We were fortunate enough to live near Moors Valley which definitely had 5 stars! There is so much more to do there and the cafe considerably better. The staff in the cafe here seemed overwhelmed and young (which is ok..I have worked in Hospitality for years and with younger staff) but they seemed a bit stretched and this isnt even summer. The poor girl where she makes the coffee just seems squeezed into a corner and theres no way anyone would be able to help her. Alot to be sorted out so only a 3..just...from us.

Wasn't very impressed by the service in the cafe. The junior go ape looks great and so do the bike trails but we drove here with the intentions purely for eating and going on the playground which looks better from afar than it is when you get to it as my 4 year old was very quickly bored. Queued for 20 minutes for the food at 11:30 and on the menu this said breakfast menu before 12 and Lunch menu after 12. So we decided all of our meals based on this to be told at the til at 11:50 that we couldn't have breakfasts because it was the lunch menu and they couldn't cross over menus. We asked how this was because it wasn't 12 yet and we followed the board to which they didn't answer and we then felt pressured to then all decide and so just got out of the busy queue. To be honest this spoilt our day because we didn't want to re-queue and then couldn't get in anywhere else locally when we left.

The cafe is great lovely choice of cakes drinks and food, not impressed you have to pay to get a map of the trail when you already have to pay for parking and bout time they added better sculptures on the trail as at the moment its just a long walk around the forest not much to see, do like the start of the red path tho maybe do this for the whole trail

Sculpture trail is not very good map useless was in areas 4 5 and 6 only saw one sculpture the black dome couldn't see the others even though there were signs saying nothing we did have a nice walk through the forest but wouldn't return for sale of non existent sculptures

Great place to go with the kids and dog. Only downside is the amount of irresponsible dog owners that allow their dogs off the leads. Our dog was attacked by another dog off its lead "our dog was on a lead" . All dogs are capable of biting, this dog was savage and paid no attention to his owners commands. My kids were quite frightened. Other than that great place..

We love Beechenhurst. Great place to take your kids to tire them out. Our daughter loves the park and we all love it when there are trails on. Today we all enjoyed the Gruffalo Spotter trail. Awesome!

The kids loved the zipwire in the park and the Gruffulo walk. Download the app for photos with the characters from the story as you go round. Everythng you need in one place. The homemade cakes are gorgeous in the cafe.

Lovely place.. did most of the sculpture trail and the kids loved it. Stopped at Cafe for cake whilst the kids played in park. Well worth a visit.

Had a lovely time at Beechenhurst yesterday. Fantastic play area for the kids. Lovely cafe and thought paths were really well maintained. Would like better signage for trails - couldn't find the nature reserve trail but will try again on another visit.

Had a fabulous day yesterday with my daughter and friend, doing the gruffalo spotting trail! Lovely clean site (expensive car parking, although if you are making a full day of it then it's fine!) Lovely restaurant and friendly staff! We will definately be back to do the go ape and explore all the other trails in the holidays!

Great place for the family. Gruffalo trail, play area, cafe, sculpture trail, beautiful forest and much much more. Great value only pay for parking, baby changing and pram friendly, will definitely be back.

Great Gruffalo Trail for the kids. About 2 miles of walking through woodland, ideal distance for little people. Download the Gruffalo Spotter App to bring the Gruffalo & friends to life. The playground & cafe are also fab.

First time visiting beechenhurst the great outdoors at its best. Loved the sculpture trail except only saw a third of the trail. Toddler with tired legs!! Will definitely be back to explore more. Perfect for a crisp Autumn afternoon.

We came to give our twin daughters their birthday treat at Go Ape Tree Top Juniors. Excellent friendly, well-trained staff; beautiful environment and a thoroughly enjoyable day.

This is a wonderful place to visit. Lots of things to do, nice park, large green, café, public toilets go ape, climbing wall and beautiful walks (though we really miss the big chair).

It would have 5 stars if the parking wasn't so expensive when public transport isnt an option.

The parking is expensive (£3 for minimum 2 hrs) for a lunch stop as we are local. The Highway Rat trail was enjoyable for my six year old, however the paths to the search items are really muddy and we both slipped over in the mud, so be careful! It added to the overall fun of the day tho. My best lunch has to be their Gloucester Rarebit with mushrooms- exactly how a rarebit should be! (And part of the reason for the lunch stop) Well done Sophie, Lauren and Sarah on serving us all so well on such a busy day today. Thanks.

Managed to get around two thirds of the sculpture trail before aching feet and a need for a sit down by the grandchildren. Stopped off at the cafe, what an amazing selection on cakes and drinks for an afternoon pick me up. Looking forward to returning to finish off the walk.

Lovely walk around the sculpture trail yesterday, love the upgrade to the cafe. Been to Beechenhurst many times and we love it, perfect for our toddler! Hoping to see some upgrades to the toilet facilities soon too.

A lovely place to stroll round. There could be more signs in places to help people round the trail though. I agree with previous comments about the cafe prices being quite high. However, the facilities are good for this type of 'attraction.' Something for just about everyone to enjoy.

Went along here today as sunny and moving to the area soon. Loved the Forest and all the walks. Unfortunately the play area hugely lets this down. Not enough to do,just felt full of boring wood,old and antiquated play equipment. It was fairly busy today so I dread to think what it would be like in the summer. We were fortunate enough to live near Moors Valley which definitely had 5 stars! There is so much more to do there and the cafe considerably better. The staff in the cafe here seemed overwhelmed and young (which is ok..I have worked in Hospitality for years and with younger staff) but they seemed a bit stretched and this isnt even summer. The poor girl where she makes the coffee just seems squeezed into a corner and theres no way anyone would be able to help her. Alot to be sorted out so only a 3..just...from us.

Wasn't very impressed by the service in the cafe. The junior go ape looks great and so do the bike trails but we drove here with the intentions purely for eating and going on the playground which looks better from afar than it is when you get to it as my 4 year old was very quickly bored. Queued for 20 minutes for the food at 11:30 and on the menu this said breakfast menu before 12 and Lunch menu after 12. So we decided all of our meals based on this to be told at the til at 11:50 that we couldn't have breakfasts because it was the lunch menu and they couldn't cross over menus. We asked how this was because it wasn't 12 yet and we followed the board to which they didn't answer and we then felt pressured to then all decide and so just got out of the busy queue. To be honest this spoilt our day because we didn't want to re-queue and then couldn't get in anywhere else locally when we left.

The cafe is great lovely choice of cakes drinks and food, not impressed you have to pay to get a map of the trail when you already have to pay for parking and bout time they added better sculptures on the trail as at the moment its just a long walk around the forest not much to see, do like the start of the red path tho maybe do this for the whole trail

Sculpture trail is not very good map useless was in areas 4 5 and 6 only saw one sculpture the black dome couldn't see the others even though there were signs saying nothing we did have a nice walk through the forest but wouldn't return for sale of non existent sculptures

Great place to go with the kids and dog. Only downside is the amount of irresponsible dog owners that allow their dogs off the leads. Our dog was attacked by another dog off its lead "our dog was on a lead" . All dogs are capable of biting, this dog was savage and paid no attention to his owners commands. My kids were quite frightened. Other than that great place..