Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
800-year-old Major Oak, in the trunk of which Robin Hood hid (at least according to
local lore). The visitor center (with a restaurant) is the starting point for marked walks
and footpaths through the woods; you can also buy self-guided family trails maps or
sign up for guided walks and activities, from archery and birds-of-prey sessions to
costumed re-enactments, woodland crafts, and puppetry. The park is open daily 10am
to 5pm in summer; 10am to 4pm in winter (to 5pm on Sat-Sun), with parking £3;
the visitor center shuts all winter.
Edwinstowe is also the entry point for the
Sherwood Pines Forest Park
(
&
01623/822447;
www.forestry.gov.uk), run by the Forestry Commission and with
a visitor center of its own running more activities and events, plus another Go Ape!
treetop adventure course, woodland play areas, and bike-rental, and a Forest Holidays
site with wooden lodges (p. 550). The park is open May to September daily 8am to
10pm, October to April 8am to 6pm; parking is £3.
Another option is to head for the northernmost part of the forest, to Worksop,
where
Clumber Park
(
&
0844/800-1895;
www.nationaltrust.org.uk)
offers masses of green space and spectacular scenery (it's the grounds of the long-lost
country house of Clumber Hall, destroyed by fire in the 1930s), best discovered on
more than 22 miles of cycle routes, one of them around the lake. You can also roam
the walled kitchen garden (which provides many ingredients for the restaurant), seek
out a few moments of peace in the Victorian chapel, or stroll the elegant paths of the
18th-century pleasure ground, designed to give the dukes of Newcastle who lived
here secluded walks. At press time, a state-of-the-art Discovery & Visitor Centre was
scheduled to open in the former stableyard. The park is open (and free) to visitors all
the time; see the website for opening times of park facilities. Not far away lies
Cress-
well Crags,
“Britain's oldest art gallery.”
There's another great green space within the forest confines, at Ollerton:
Rufford
Abbey Country Park
(
&
01623/821338;
www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/ruffordcp),
a swath of historic parkland and gardens including woodland and lakeside walks, a play
village with a maze and a children's garden, a modern sculpture trail, a contemporary
craft center, the ruins of a medieval monastery with an exhibition on the life of Rufford's
monks, and a camera obscura. It's open daily 10am to 5pm in summer, 10:30am to
4:30pm in winter, with slight seasonal variations; entry is free, parking £3.
Literary associations abound south of Mansfield, at
Newstead Abbey
and the
DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum
(see below).
Cresswell Crags Museum & Heritage Centre
MUSEUM The U.K.'s
only known Ice Age rock art was discovered on this site in 2003, and you can also
view stone tools and animal remains that were found within this limestone gorge
honeycombed with caves and smaller fissures. Depending on when you visit you can
take a Rock Art or Ice Age tour or just learn more about the site—one of the most
northerly on Earth to have been inhabited by ancient peoples—in the museum and
visitor center. Walking trails take you around the surrounding country park and wild-
life reserve.
Crags Rd., Welbeck.
&
01909/720378.
www.creswell-crags.org.uk. Admission £3 adults, £1.50 chil-
dren 5-16; for tour prices, see website. Exhibition daily Feb and Oct 10am-4:30pm, Mar-Sept daily
10am-5:30pm, Nov-Jan Sat-Sun 10am-4:30pm; for cave tours (weekends and school holidays except
winter) see website.
DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum
HISTORIC HOME This unassuming
terraced miner's cottage has been restored inside, to the way it would have looked
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