Fritham

Ponies roam freely through ancient heathland, their hooves picking paths between gorse and silver birch. This is proper New Forest territory, where Fritham sits as one of those barely-there villages that feels more like a collection of forest clearings than anywhere with defined edges.

The Royal Oak pub anchors what little there is of the settlement - a thatched affair that's been serving walkers and commoners for centuries. From here, gravel tracks lead off in all directions across open heath. Running Hill and Deadbuck Hill offer cracking views across the forest canopy, while the more adventurous can seek out Malwood Castle Hillfort, where Iron Age earthworks still mark the landscape.

History runs deep in these woods. The Rufus Stone marks where William II supposedly met his end during a hunting expedition, though the current monument is Victorian rather than medieval. More sobering is the Tallboy Bomb Crater, a water-filled reminder of wartime training when Allied forces practised for the Dambusters raids. Ashley Range still bears scars from when it served as a bombing target.

Getting here means navigating narrow lanes from Cadnam or Lyndhurst, the nearest proper towns. No railway reaches this far into the forest - it's all about the car or bicycle. The landscape shifts constantly: open heath gives way to dense woodland at Blackthorn Copse and Budgen Wood, then back to grassland where cattle graze alongside those famous ponies.

Staying at one of the forest campsites like Longbeech or Hollands Wood puts you right in the thick of it. Wake to birdsong and morning mist, spend days walking ancient drove roads, and return to base camp as the sun sets through the trees. It's about as far from urban life as southern England gets.