The origins of Sherwood Forest and Sherwood Country Park Sherwood Country Park lies just north of Edwinstowe, two miles from Ollerton and 17 miles north of Nottingham on the A614 Nottingham-Doncaster road. The park is within an area derived from a Scandanavian name “birch lund”, now known as Birklands.

• Map of Sherwood Forest Country Park
• tel: general enquiries: 0845 330 4212 (8am - 8pm Mon-Fri; 8am - 12 noon Sat); 01623 823202 (Sat pm & all day Sunday)
• country park: 01623 823202
• Forest Table restaurant: 01623 823202 ext 32
• local visitor information (seasonal): 01623 824490
• fax: 01623 823202
• e-mail: sherwood.forest@nottscc.gov.uk

Visitors welcome!

Browse around the Visitor Centre shops or relax after a stroll in the Forest Table Restaurant. Take a walk to the mighty Major Oak, pick up one of our fun family nature trails, or just stand and admire the weird and wonderful shapes of the ancient oak trees, twisted by age and weathered into living sculptures. Take time out to appreciate the unique ecology of Sherwood. The natural decay of fallen wood means the woodland teems with insect life, fungi, birds and bats. In partnership with the Sherwood Trust, we currently have a woodland grazing project at Sherwood, with Hebridean sheep and Dexter cattle helping ensure that open areas of medieval heathland do not revert to scrub.

Something for everyone

Sherwood Forest Country Park welcomes around 500,000 visitors each year, ranging from local residents to overseas tourists, from special needs groups to school outings. We welcome volunteers prepared to help out with the work of the park, for example, by helping as a marshall at seasonal events, or lending a hand with litter picking.

Please contact the Rangers for more details:
• tel: 01623 823202
• e-mail: sherwood.forest@nottscc.gov.uk

Home of a legend

Sherwood Forest has a fascinating history and is the legendary home of Robin Hood. It is the site of one of the county’s most popular free festivals, the annual summer Robin Hood Festival. For more information on Sherwood Forest visit: www.sherwoodforest.org.uk

Ancient woodland

This 450 acre country park was designated a National Nature Reserve in 2002 by English Nature, the Government agency responsible for safeguarding our natural environment. Visit their website at: www.english-nature.org.uk. The site is managed by us and maintained by our country park rangers, working to a Woodland Management Plan drawn up as a partnership between English Nature and ourselves. Sherwood Forest Country Park contains some of the oldest trees in Europe, veteran oaks five centuries old and the world-famous Major Oak, still producing acorns after standing at the heart of Sherwood Forest for an estimated 800 years!

Major Oak

This forest veteran is a huge oak tree thought to be around 800 years old. In a 2002 survey, it was voted “Britain’s favourite tree”. According to local lore, its hollow trunk was used as a hideout by Robin Hood’s men, though if Robin was – as legend suggests – active in the 12th or 13th century, this tree could only have been a sapling then. So it must have been another, much older oak that hid the outlaw.

Today, the world famous tree weighs an estimated 23 tonnes, its trunk circumference is 33 feet (10m) and its branches spread to over 92 feet (28m).

The name

The earliest recorded name for this remarkable oak, dating back to the mid 18th century, was the Cockpen Tree. The hollow interior is said to have been used to pen cockerels ready to be used in the now illegal sport of cock fighting. Later it was known as the Queen Oak. In 1790, Major Hayman Rooke, a noted antiquarian from Mansfield Woodhouse, included the tree in his popular book about the ancient oaks of Sherwood. It thus became known as The Major‘s Oak, and later simply The Major Oak.

Preserving The Major Oak

Because of its national importance, conservation measures to the tree have been carried out continually since 1908. In Edwardian times, metal chains were used to support its weighty branches, and lead sheet attached to protect the trunk. In the late seventies, these measures were replaced by large wooden struts, supporting the heaviest branches. Today, slender steel poles prop the sprawling limbs of this forest giant. Tree surgeons check the oak periodically and carry out remedial work as needed. A fence prevents the ground above its roots from being compacted by the feet of thousands of visitors, enabling moisture and nutriments to penetrate the soil and continue to nurture the mighty tree.