Walks you can reach from New Milton by train

Recommended

Time: 3h30–7h

1 lunch spot: the Fleur de Lys (1h–1h30 in)

2 end-of-walk rewards: the Snakecatcher Pub, or the Huntsman

Warnings: Can be EXTREME mud in Lymington Reeds Beds Nature Reserve.

Adapted from: The Rough Guide to Walks in London & the South East (3rd edition).

Similar walk: Railwalks (inc. GPX).

Reverse direction: the Saturday Walkers Club and Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Rolling Thomas Hardy Country pastures, large woods, dairy farms, remote scenic coombes, steep chalk clifftops, rock stacks, limestone arches, caves, beautiful coves, parkland, heath and bluebell woods.

Time: 7h

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Forest inclosures and heath between the villages of Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst, with Lymington River bathing spots and spring bluebells. Strenuous.

Walk details: New Forest Walks (tips, photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Heath and forest inclosures skirting a golf course, between the villages of Lyndhurst and Ashurst. Strenuous.

Warnings: Tracks can be muddy after wet weather; watch for stray golf balls.

Walk details: New Forest Walks (tips, photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Historic cathedral city streets, watermeadows, iron age hillfort, downland ridges, river valley and ancient meadows.

Warnings: M3 motorway noise.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Open heath and forest inclosures, a caravan park and a dead-straight stretch of the disused Castleman Corkscrew railway, now a cycle route. Strenuous.

Warnings: Some short road sections have no footpath; watch for traffic.

Walk details: New Forest Walks (tips, photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Ancient woodland, open heath and inclosures, crossing the Beaulieu River past Matley and Denny Woods. Strenuous.

Matley Wood: A small but beautiful tract of ancient and ornamental New Forest woodland reached across open heath.

Denny Wood: An ancient and ornamental woodland of beech and oak flanked by ferns and surrounded by heath and wetland habitats.

Warnings: Some roadside walking with limited footpath; take care.

Walk details: New Forest Walks (tips, photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

A scenic, almost entirely off-road walk crossing picturesque estates (War Memorial Park, Hackwood Park), woodland and arable farmers' fields, with a variety of landscapes. Some narrow and overgrown stretches (notably White Lane), a couple of stiles and kissing gates and a small amount of quiet-lane road walking; firm underfoot in dry spells. Not much in the way of resting places; the church at Weston Patrick has seating. A bus runs between the two endpoints.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Time: 5h–10h

1 lunch spot: Avenue Nurseries café

Warnings: Several stiles and kissing gates, and an overgrown stretch of track (White Lane). The B3349 crossing has good sightlines south but a northbound bend, so take care. Cattle, including Highland cows, often in a field near Alton.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Uses Forestry England approved routes.

Woodland: two fifths under tree cover.

Time: 5h–10h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Coastal path, with a long section from the station to reach the coast.

Walk details: Railwalks.

Coastal path.

Walk details: Railwalks.

Solent Way with an inland section and a ferry crossing to Hythe.

Walk details: Railwalks.