It’s worth pointing out that this review of Hatfield Forest is written during the winter months. Why does that matter? Well, they ask that during the winter you keep to the hard standing paths and don’t walk through the smaller woodland tracks. You also have to pre-booking parking at weekends and during the school holidays because the hard standing car park is pretty small.
It’s actually been the parking at Hatfield Forest that has put me off doing a review. Now they’ve introduced pre-bookable parking only at the weekends there’s no risk of driving 90 minutes and not being able to get in it was worth going. I guess I’ll just have to go back in the summer and see what it’s like then.
The boardwalk
The easiest way to get to the loos from the car park (and be warned it’s a bit of a walk) is by talking the boardwalk. And who doesn’t love a boardwalk? Well turns out in the bleak mid-winter it’s not me! There’s signs everywhere that say it might be slippery when wet or icy. Turns out they didn’t lie – something my backside can attest to.
When you’re not ice skating along the path it is very pretty though. I suspect the prettiest section is the one that goes alongside the lake but that’s currently closed for repairs. From the other side you can see why – it’s got massive holes in it.
The lake and the hub
When we visited Hatfield Forest it was flipping freezing. Literally freezing actually and most of the lake had frozen solid, much to the delight of the kids. They kept chucking sticks etc on to the surface to see if they could break the ice. They couldn’t. The kids were having a great time, the poor ducks all huddled in the one section that wasn’t frozen seemed less keen.
The hub area is home to the cafe, toilets, picnic area and the education centre. It’s also where you’ll find the shell house. I’ll admit I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I’d read about it before we visited Hatfield Forest, meant to take lots of photos to include in the review, and then promptly forgot about it. It wasn’t until I got home that I realised that the building we’d been looking at was actually the Shell House after all! It’s called that because of the decorations on the outside. I can’t quite decide what this is supposed to be though, I think it’s a chicken??
When is a forest not a forest?
I was surprised at how much of Hatfield Forest isn’t actually, well, a forest. In fact, in the winter you only really skirt around the edges of the woods. Most of the time you’re in what I’d describe as a common. Turns out that, back in Norman times anywhere mainly used for hunting deer was called a forest! TBH it was actually a bit of a result because I’d told Smallest Child the day before we weren’t going to the woods at the weekend and she was pretty annoyed when I said we were going to “Hatfield Forest“. I was soon forgiven.
Clearly this place gets pretty waterlogged though because there were ice puddles everywhere! We ended up setting up a couple of “ice farms” and collecting it all. Kristoff had nothing on us! Honestly, not my idea of fun but the kids were loving life, playing nicely together and happy so I was not going to complain about that. It’s a nice place to walk around in the winter but I bet it’s great to play on and properly explore in the summer!
Oh, and if you’re into planes it’s not a bad spot either. It’s right next door to Stanstead airport so you can see them coming in to land and taking off. And you can most definitely hear them roaring to take off! The kids decided that was a gang of polar bears roaring apparently.
Our Hatfield Forest Review
In the winter it’s a nice walk, there’s a circular trail to follow and you won’t get too muddy. You can easily be there for a few hours but you might struggle to be there all day. That said, it’s winter and it’s more difficult to be outside all day anyway.
In the summer though, I bet you could easily spend all day in the woods exploring. I’ve definitely got to go back to to Hatfield Forest in the summer and update this review.
Admission cost
Free
Parking / How to get there
Parking – £8 per car, all day. Free for NT members. There are three car parks, but only the hard standing car parks are open in the winter. During the winter you have to pre-book parking online at weekends and during the holidays.
Address – Brush End Road, Takeley, Bishop’s Stortford, Essex. CM22 6NE
Toilets
On-site including baby change
Food
Cafe on-site. Picnics allowed
Looking for other National Trust reviews?
You can find all of my reviews of National Trust properties on the NT pages. We’ve been members for years and have visited well over 100 properties across the UK now. They offer a variety of great value memberships, including single adult family memberships. We get so much value for money out of ours! Check out all of the options here (affiliate link)
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Hi, I’m Vicky. My husband and I live in Aylesbury with our three children; a 12 year old son, a 10 year old son and a 5 year old daughter. I (mostly) love spending time together as a family. We visit all kinds of places and we’re quite happy to drive a fair distance for a decent day out. A few years ago I decided to set up Free Time with the Kids as a way to share our experiences of these family days out.
You’ll find the essential information you need to know before your visit that can be surprisingly hard to find out. Where do I park? How much will it cost me to get in? Are there any discounts available? Are there loos? Can I take a picnic or get food? My aim is to be your go-to guide for all your free and cheap family days out across Bucks, Beds, Oxon, Herts & slightly beyond. I really hope you find the reviews helpful. If there’s anywhere that you’d recommend please get in touch contact@freetimewiththekids.com or get in touch via Facebook
