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United Kingdom United Kingdom forest

Ashdown Forest

BillPP · CC BY-SA 3.0

66% trees around it and 1,460 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km66%
  • wild within 10 km92%
  • species recorded1,460
  • Altitude198 m

The forest around

66% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 74%Grassland 26%Trees 65%Grassland 33%Cropland 0%Built-up 2%Trees 51%Grassland 40%Water 1%Cropland 6%Built-up 1%Trees 49%Grassland 41%Water 0%Cropland 6%Built-up 3%66%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km74%
  • 1–3 km65%
  • 3–6 km51%
  • 6–10 km49%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees65%
  • Grassland33%
  • Water0%
  • Cropland0%
  • Built-up2%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

1,460 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Bog Heather
Bog HeatherErica tetralix352 recordsChristian Fischer · CC BY-SA 3.0
Heather
HeatherCalluna vulgaris319 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Bracken
BrackenPteridium aquilinum311 recordsStefan.lefnaer · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bog asphodel
Bog asphodelNarthecium ossifragum288 recordsHajotthu · CC BY-SA 3.0
Heather-bell
Heather-bellErica cinerea236 recordsGwen and James Anderson · CC BY-SA 2.0
Erect cinquefoil
Erect cinquefoilPotentilla erecta235 recordsUser:Tigerente · CC BY 2.5
Purple moor-grass
Purple moor-grassMolinia caerulea221 recordsElke Freese · CC BY-SA 3.0
English holly
English hollyIlex aquifolium220 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Round-leaved Sundew
Round-leaved SundewDrosera rotundifolia208 recordsGiuseppe Frizzi · Public domain
Gorse
GorseUlex europaeus194 recordsForest & Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0
Pedunculate Oak
Pedunculate OakQuercus robur190 recordsAlgirdas at Lithuanian Wikipedia · Public domain
European Beech
European BeechFagus sylvatica179 recordsMalene Thyssen · CC BY-SA 3.0

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

78out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 66%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 92%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 1,460Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 198 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking in June and in September.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan8°3°78 mm
  2. Feb8°3°62 mm
  3. Mar10°3°54 mm
  4. Apr13°5°43 mm
  5. May16°8°52 mm
  6. Jun19°11°52 mm
  7. Jul21°13°58 mm
  8. Aug21°14°66 mm
  9. Sep19°12°47 mm
  10. Oct15°9°82 mm
  11. Nov11°6°86 mm
  12. Dec8°4°84 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Ashdown Forest.

Heathland area in the county of East Sussex

Ashdown Forest is a forest in United Kingdom.

Seen from space, 66% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 92% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

1,460 species have been recorded around it: 876 plants, 368 fungi, 185 birds and 31 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Bog Heather, Heather and Bracken.

The best time to walk is in June and in September.

Ashdown Forest - Friends Clump
BillPP · CC BY-SA 3.0

Get there and walk

  • Official informationAccess, hours and rules from those who manage the place.Official site
  • Scout Adventures Broadstone Warrencampsite · 1.2 km · 22 within 10 km
  • Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Clubplace to stay · 0.2 km · 26 within 10 km
  • Forest Rownearest town · 2.8 km in a straight line
  • London Gatwick Airport (LGW)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 18 km in a straight lineCar hire at LGW airport (London)Discover Cars · sponsored link

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Ashdown Forest seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 14marked trails within 5 kmVanguard Way, Wealdway, High Weald Landscape Trail and 11 more
  • 2named and notable trees within 6 kmGreenwich Meridian Centenary Tree
  • 7picnic sites within 4 kmMillenium Picnic Site and 6 more
  • 10shelters and huts within 6 km
  • 6viewpoints within 5 km
  • 3visitor centres within 6 kmAshdown Forest Information Centre, East Grinstead Tourist Information Centre, Travel Centre
  • 91car parks within 3 km
  • 22campsites within 10 kmScout Adventures Broadstone Warren, St Ives Farm Campsite, Evergreen Farm Woodland Campsite and 19 more
  • 26places to stay within 10 kmAshdown Park Hotel and Country Club, Brambletye Hotel, Ravenswood Hotel and 23 more
  • 11restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Ashdown Forest.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas7 mountains within 25 km
Blackcap21 kmOffham Hill21 kmCliffe Hill164 m · 22 kmDitchling Beacon248 m · 22 kmBotley Hill270 m · 23 kmWolstonbury Hill24 kmBetsom's Hill251 m · 24 km
Lakeyas2 lakes within 15 km
Weir Wood Reservoir1.0 km² · 4.1 kmArdingly Reservoir0.7 km² · 10 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Ashdown Forest View
User:UKgeofan · CC BY-SA 3.0
Ashdown Forest Centre
Dartford Warbler · Public domain
Ashdown Forest cyclists on Crowborough Road
Dartford Warbler ( talk ) · Public domain

Other forests nearby.

Ashdown Forest

United Kingdom

  • 78Forestyas Score
  • 66%Trees
  • 92%Wild
  • 1,460Species

Sheffield Park Garden

United Kingdom · 8 km

  • 69Forestyas Score
  • 41%Trees
  • 89%Wild
  • 1,353Species

See the guide

Bedgebury Forest

United Kingdom · 29 km

  • 74Forestyas Score
  • 64%Trees
  • 85%Wild
  • 1,430Species

See the guide

Painshill

United Kingdom · 44 km

  • 72Forestyas Score
  • 52%Trees
  • 83%Wild
  • 2,181Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q2351129) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species81,455 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Islandyas, Lakeyas, Darkskyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.