I have been to Moors Valley approximately a hundred times. That is not an exaggeration: runs, mountain bike laps, family bike rides when the kids were small, queuing for the steam train, trying to stop the dog eating a duck, and more walks than I can count at every conceivable length. I have many fond memories here. It is one of those places in Dorset that has been part of the background of life for long enough that I cannot imagine not having it nearby.
Before you go, a few honest points. The parking charges are borderline robbery. Entry to the park is free but the car park is where they get you, and the rates on a summer weekend are significant. I pay it every time because it is genuinely convenient, but if you want to sidestep it, some people park elsewhere for free and walk or cycle in. More practically: if you are planning a visit on a summer weekend or a bank holiday, get there early. After the beach, this is probably the busiest place in Dorset on a good day. I have arrived twice to a full car park with someone actively turning people away at the entrance. The place is large enough that you can escape the crowds once you are in. Head into the quieter parts of the forest and it thins out quickly. But the play area and the sections closest to the visitor centre can feel genuinely hectic. My personal preference is autumn, when the crowds drop away and the park becomes a different, better version of itself.
What Moors Valley actually is
Moors Valley is a 1,000-acre country park managed jointly by Dorset Council and Forestry England. It sits near Ringwood on the Dorset and Hampshire border, close enough to Bournemouth and Poole that it draws one of the biggest crowds of any attraction in the area on summer days and school holidays. The scale of the park means you can get away from that if you want to, but go in knowing it gets busy, and plan accordingly.
Entry to the park is free. You pay to park, which is the model most Forestry England sites run on. What you get for the parking charge is access to a surprisingly large amount of things: waymarked walking and cycling routes, the lakes, the forest, the play areas, the railway viewing area, and the landscape itself. The paid activities (Go Ape, the railway rides, mini golf, cycle hire) are on top of that, but none of them are required to have a genuinely good day.
The park has been here long enough that it feels established rather than manicured. The trees are mature. The lakes look like they belong there. The paths through the forest have the kind of worn-in quality that comes from decades of feet and wheels and children running ahead of their parents. What I have noticed over the years is that they clearly invest in the place: the adventure trail gets new features added, the play areas are maintained properly, and the whole site is looked after in a way that is not a given for a free-entry public park.
The walks
There are four waymarked walking routes, which between them cover most of what the park has to offer.
Lakes and Riverside Walk: 0.75 miles (1.2km) The short one. Tarmac and boardwalk the whole way with one gentle rise, benches positioned along the route, and good views of the lakes. This is the walk for small children in pushchairs, dogs who are working up to bigger days out, and anyone who wants 45 minutes in the forest without committing to more. It is a perfectly good way to spend 45 minutes and the lake views earn it.
Lookout Walk: 1.5 miles (2.3km) Gravel and dirt track with some elevation, steeper than the shorter route in places. The payoff is the Lookout, which gives you views across the forest that are worth the climb. There is a picnic spot at the top. On a clear day you appreciate just how much forest surrounds you on all sides. This is the route I default to when I want a proper walk without extending it to a full afternoon.
Park and Forest Walk: 3 miles (5km) Takes in the Lookout, passes meadows and mature woodland, and runs alongside Moors Lake and Crane Lake for long stretches. The best version of what the park has to offer in one route: varied terrain, multiple landscapes, the views from the top, and the lake reflections on the way back. This is the one I bring anyone visiting from outside Dorset.
Long Forest Walk: 5 miles (8km) Quieter than the others, heading out into the parts of the forest that most visitors do not reach. Gentle rises rather than steep climbs, and Pine Avenue, a long straight section through tall conifers that feels genuinely different from the rest of the park. Takes a proper couple of hours. Worth doing if you want to see the place beyond its obvious edges.
Running and cycling
I have run in Moors Valley more times than anywhere else in Dorset. The forest paths give you options in one, two, or three-mile loops starting from the totem pole at the visitor centre, marked with Red Run England signs. It is not technical running. The terrain is forest paths and gravel tracks rather than anything requiring trail shoes. But it is a good surface for a quick run and the park has enough variation to keep it interesting across a few different routes.
The junior parkrun on Sunday mornings at 9am (2K) and the adult parkrun on Saturdays at the same time (5K) make this a regular fixture for a lot of local runners. I have done both. The Saturday 5K is a well-organised run with a good field and the park setting makes it considerably more enjoyable than a road equivalent.
For cycling, Watchmoor Bike Park is the serious option: green skills loops, blue flowing lines, and red jump trails for those who want them. It is not huge, but it is well-built and has enough variety across the levels to be genuinely useful. There are also waymarked cycling routes across the wider park suitable for family rides on regular bikes. This is how most people cycle here, and the gravel and tarmac tracks handle it well.
Cycle hire is available from the visitor centre. I have used it and the bikes are decent quality, but these days I bring my own to keep the cost down and avoid the queue. If transporting bikes is the reason a family cycling day does not happen, the hire option removes that excuse entirely.
The steam railway
The Moors Valley Railway is a miniature steam railway that runs through the park, and it is one of those things that sounds like it should be optional but somehow ends up being the highlight of every visit it features on. The fleet has over twenty locomotives. The routes take you through the forest on narrow gauge track in a way that, if you are under ten years old, is approximately the greatest thing that has ever happened.
If you are an adult, it is still very good. There is something about a well-run miniature steam railway in a forest that is difficult to resist regardless of age. I have been on it with children who found it genuinely magical and with adults who pretended they were only there for the children. We were all on the same train.
The railway operates throughout the year with some seasonal variation in timetable. Check the current schedule on the Moors Valley website before visiting if the train is a central part of your plan.
Go Ape and paid activities
Go Ape at Moors Valley runs three courses at different difficulty levels, plus the Nets Adventure and a Forest Segway option. If you have children old enough to manage the high ropes, this is the activity that turns a good day out into the day they talk about for a week. It is not cheap. The Go Ape pricing reflects what it is. But for the right age group it earns every penny.
Forest Segways, Laser Tag, Adventure Valley Land Rovers, mini golf, pitch and putt, an 18-hole golf course, and fishing are also available on site. You can layer as many or as few of these as you want onto a visit. None of them are necessary for a good day, all of them are available if the occasion calls for it.
The honest approach is to decide before you go what you are there for: a walk and lunch, or a full activity day. Trying to fit in the railway, Go Ape, cycling, and a proper walk in one visit is possible in theory and exhausting in practice. Moors Valley works best when you give it time rather than trying to compress every option into four hours.
Play areas and kids
There are two large adventure playgrounds on site, and both are well-equipped for a range of ages. The Bee Hive is an accessible structure, designed to include children with mobility impairments alongside those without, which is handled thoughtfully.
The Room on the Broom Trail runs through the park for fans of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's book, the kind of trail activity that keeps children purposefully walking through the forest looking for specific things rather than asking if they can go home yet. The Gruffalo sculptures are a fixture that younger children find immediately and want to photograph with everyone present.
I have been here with children at various ages and the play areas hold up across the range. Small children find the equipment genuinely engaging rather than frustrating. Older children graduate to the bike park and Go Ape. The park has been designed to work for families across a wide age range and it does.
Wildlife and the ducks
The ducks on Moors Lake are, at this point, a Moors Valley institution. I have fed them many times across many years and they have never appeared to go hungry. They are comfortable around people in the way that comes from decades of bread offerings, and they are very useful if you have a child who needs something to focus their energy on for ten minutes while the adults have a conversation.
The forest itself supports the wildlife you would expect from a mature coniferous and broadleaf woodland: squirrels, various woodland birds, occasional deer in the quieter parts of the park. The Nightjar is the one worth knowing about: the quieter eastern sections of the forest are good habitat, and if you are there at dusk in late spring or summer the churring call is unmistakable once you know what you are listening for.
The WWII bunker on site is worth hunting out if you have children who are interested in history or just interested in a bunker, which tends to amount to the same thing.
Food and drink
The restaurant at the visitor centre does the job for a post-walk lunch or a coffee and cake mid-morning. Hot and cold food, reasonable quality for a busy park restaurant, indoor and outdoor seating. Snack kiosks are positioned around the site so you are not dependent on walking back to the visitor centre whenever someone is hungry.
The vegan ice cream is worth knowing about if that matters to your group: better than the usual one sad non-dairy option that constitutes the concession at most park cafes.
Picnics are the right answer if you are there for a full day. There are picnic tables and open areas across the park, and on a good day eating outdoors in the forest beats the restaurant on every count. Bring enough, because Moors Valley generates the kind of appetite that surprises people.
What you need to know before you go
Address: Horton Road, Ashley Heath, Ringwood, BH24 2ET
Getting there: Signed from the A31. Easy to find if you are coming from Bournemouth, Poole or Ringwood. The car park is large and well-laid out.
Opening times: Open daily. Check moors-valley.co.uk for seasonal hours before visiting.
Entry: Free. No charge to enter the park.
Parking charges:
| Period | Up to 1hr | 1–2hrs | 2–4hrs | 4–5hrs | 5+ hrs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Term time weekday | £4.00 | £7.20 | £10.20 | £12.50 | £14.50 |
| Weekend / school holidays | £5.70 | £11.00 | £15.00 | £16.00 | £17.00 |
Weekend early bird: £2.50 if you arrive before 10:30am and exit by 10:45am. Good for parkrun mornings or an early walk. Season tickets are available for frequent visitors and start making sense quickly if you come more than a handful of times a year.
Motorcycles: no charge (use the designated bay).
Dogs: Welcome on designated dog-friendly trails. Keep on lead in some areas. The site has clear signage. The ducks will test your dog's recall regardless of how good it usually is.
Accessibility: Tarmac and boardwalk on the Lakes and Riverside Walk (0.75 miles) makes it fully accessible for pushchairs and wheelchairs. The Bee Hive accessible play structure is thoughtfully designed. Longer routes have gravel and dirt tracks with some steeper sections.
Paid activities: Go Ape, Moors Valley Railway, cycle hire, mini golf, golf, fishing, all bookable separately. Check the Moors Valley website for current prices and booking requirements as these vary by season.
Is it worth it?
Yes, and it has been worth it every one of the approximately hundred times I have been here.
The honest pitch for Moors Valley is that it is the most flexible day out in Dorset. There is no version of a family, a couple, or a solo runner who cannot have a good time here. The walking routes range from 45 minutes to a proper half-day. The cycling and running options are genuinely good rather than token additions. The railway is a highlight regardless of age. The activities for children are well-done and available without being forced on you. And all of it sits inside 1,000 acres of forest and lakes that would be worth the parking charge even if the park offered nothing else.
The parking cost is the thing to be aware of. It is not cheap for a full day at weekends or during school holidays, and if you are planning a long visit the numbers add up. A family spending four to five hours there on a summer Saturday is looking at £16 for parking on top of whatever activities you add. That is still good value for what you get, but it is worth knowing in advance rather than landing at the machine surprised.
Plan for longer than you think you need. The park earns extra time consistently and you will leave wishing you had stayed.
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