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Insider’s Guide to Beaulieu

Your essential guide to living like-a-local in Beaulieu...

The Beaulieu River is one of the few privately owned rivers in the world and has been in the ownership of the Montagu family for over 400 years. The area feels manicured yet wild, and the village is utterly charming. 

You will find Beaulieu Village perched at the head of the tidal river…  Dating back to the 13th century, it’s perhaps one of the most iconic and most visited places in the New Forest, retaining all the charm of days gone by with a show stopping vista over the water across to the Palace House.

The village itself is picturesque with tiny redbrick houses and shops lining the ‘High Street’. Boasting quality not quantity, you’ll discover a gorgeous chocolatiere, a divine florists & boutique, an antique treasure trove, a glorious garden centre, and a gift store (Norris) that stocks over 40 locally crafted items amongst the cobbled road. For refuelling, we recommend a hearty & homegrown lunch at staff’s Kitchen (part of the garden centre), a glass of something beside etc fire at Monty’s, and stocking up at Bellord & Browns .

For fun family days out in the New Forest, Beaulieu boasts adventures aplenty- the Palace, Gardens, Abbey and renowned Motor Museum are great throughout the year, and New Forest Activities has water & land based at-the-ready. There are often special half term activities and festivities join in with, so do check out the websites.

No matter what time of the year you visit Beaulieu, Mother Nature will knock your socks off… In spring the woods near Beaulieu are full of bluebells and birdsong, whilst during summer months the forest are dappled and calm. Autumn brings a wash of colour, and in the winter months the still water looks magical under twinkly stars. Perfection!

Chocolate box village on the river... Beaulieu is boaty, beautiful and full of adventures

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Stock up your New Forest Escape with fresh produce and goodies from Bellord and Brown. You can also get a tipple in here and sit with something sweet in their petite café – we were charmed! Beaulieu Organic Farm Shop is also just outside of Beaulieu towards Brockenhurst/ Lymington and offers another great selection of meat, cheeses and sweet treats, whilst back on the High Street, Beaulieu Chocolate Studio makes gorgeous handmade, high quality chocolates that are perfect as gifts, or a treat for yourself!

Belle and Blossom do stunning flowers, displays and wreaths on one side of the shop, and boutique clothes, gifts and accessories on the other- this is a must! You’ll also wander by a lovely antique shop, and Norris’s gift shop, on your travels which are both well worth a visit.

Fairweathers Garden Centre has a gorgeous array of plants & flowers alongside their home and gifts, and we love that you can potter and get living inspiration from their ‘learning garden’ on the other side of the road.

For the foodies...

Beaulieu Bakehouse at the bottom of the high street is a lovely spot. Small, family run and with excellent cakes – probably the best in town (lots fighting for this award), and they have a huge range of teas to choose from.

As mentioned above, Stephs Kitchen at Fairweathers Garden Centre is excellent and well-loved – The food is wholesome, mostly locally made and we love their specials. If you are looking for more of a spoiler, The Terrace restaurant at The Montagu Arms boasts some seriously quality food (Which is grown predominantly in their kitchen garden). They do a great High Tea too and have good environmental credentials which are reflected in their mainly local menu. For less formal dining, there is also Montys Inn and the hotel do some scrummy cream teas.

The Master Builder’s Hotel at Buckler’s Hard has a lovely restaurant terrace overlooking the Beaulieu River as well as a separate pub and bar. We love the walk from Beaulieu to Bucklers Hard, and what a fantastic way to earn your supper as you sway in-between woodlands and riverside!

For fresh-air-frolics...

Active folk will enjoy what New Forest Activities have on offer. Based in the village, they offer some excellent trips and experiences including bushcraft, high ropes, cycle hire and a variety of water sports. Pssst – our guests get 10% off, so just ask if you’d like the code!

The Solent Way to Buckler’s Hard walk is a lovely one – we reckoned a trip to the Maritime Museum here, before or afer your pit stop at the Master Builders!

Alternatively take the walk from the Agamemnon Boatyard to Beaulieu and back- this route is suitable for children, prams and mobility vehicles (though taking slightly different routes which split and rejoin along the coast). It’s a fabulous walk and very pretty. The return trip is about 2 hours and it’s pretty flat.

For the family...

The National Motor Museum in Beaulieu creates a whole day of amusement. From the classic cars on show, to the Beaulieu Abbey ruins, grounds and Palace House, there is something for everyone. Little ones will especially love the aerial monorail and ‘Little Beaulieu’ – their impressive wooden play area, and the monorail is a fun way to survey the land!

Feel the sand under your feet…. The Nearest Beaches

Local beaches are very lovely, very quiet, very British and very much home to cows, donkeys and ponies who love to roll in the sandy bits. It’s great for kids to track them… Gruffalo-style!

Lepe Beach is a 20 minute drive away but worth it for the views over to the Isle of Wight. There is an amazing cafe that is architecturally very impressive and has equally great views. You can walk through a nature reserve and discover old WWII ruins along the beach which is well worth the walk. Plus the wild swimming is perfect here as you can hop out your car and be straight in the sea in seconds.

At Calshot the beach is pebbly and sandy at low tide, with lines of colourful beach huts. There is good wild swimming here. At the very end, there is Calshot Activity centre, run by the local council. It was once a Solent fortress, and sits right on the very end, it’s great for walks by the lines and lines of colourful beach huts, the views are fantastic and there’s a little cafe. The activities on offer are usually along the lines of cycling, (with a huge indoor velodrome), climbing, bouldering, dry slope skiing and snowboarding, plus masses of water based activities.

Here are some great dinner party facts!

  1. Buckler’s Hard, Beaulieu is home to one of the UK’s tiniest churches, The Chapel of Saint Mary. The chapel can actually be found in the front room of one of the Georgian cottages in the port and is still an active place of worship.

  2. Bucklers Hard port was constructed by the second Duke of Montagu in the 1720’s and was planned to become a free port for trade with the West Indies. Over 40 Royal Navy ships were constructed here, including 3 which fought at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

  3. William I (of the 1066 fame) applied Forest Law to make the New Forest. Hunting lodges were established throughout the forest to allow the Royal hunting parties to rest. The hunting lodge at Bellus Locus or Beaulieu was one of them.

A little smuggling story…

Contraband, smuggled from France, was landed in many places along the thickly-wooded banks, and according to one account…

“All the farms along the river were more or less concerned in the traffic…At Gin’s Barn (one of our escapes nonetheless!) …a gentleman rode up and said to the servant girl ‘Do you ever see anything of the smugglers about here? If you can give me any information, I will give you a sovereign’. The girl was not likely to betray her friends, and replied ‘Smugglers Sir! Why we be always all in bed by nine o’clock’. A few minutes later the handmaiden found her master entertaining the stranger, who was deeply interested in the contraband trade, and who had only been trying to test the girl’s fidelity. He at once gave her the sovereign, not for giving information, but for withholding it”

Buckler’s Hard on the river was a major landfall for the contraband trade: the cottage that is now a chapel was a centre of operations. In Beaulieu itself Palace House made a convenient warehouse, since it was frequently unoccupied. To discourage unnecessary interest, and ensure that the premises remained vacant, smugglers laid on a variety of stage ghost effects — clanking chains, hair-raising screams in the night, and mysterious apparitions.

Getting here...

Beaulieu is conveniently located 30 mins from Southampton, and under 20 mins from Lymington by car. If you are planning to drive to Beaulieu, you can park your car in the Beaulieu visitor centre car park. There is a separate car park for disabled visitors, near to Visitor Reception.

New Forest Tours (early July – early September)

The New Forest Tours’ Green Route links Beaulieu with Hythe Ferry (for Southampton), Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst (rail station) and Lymington. Tickets are valid all day on all routes and you can hop on and off wherever you like.