Salcey Forest

Situated near the village of Hartwell near Northampton, the award winning Salcey Forest is a great place to visit.  Top of its attractions is the infamous Tree Top Way which was built in recent years and allows you to not only walk amoungst the the trees - but above them too!

Which Walk?

There are three walks to choose from each lasting a slightly longer time.

If you have never been on it before, your first port of call has to be the Tree Top Way via the Elephant Walk!  All of the routes are clearly signposted and there is plenty to see on your way.

Before you get to the Tree Top Way you will pass the Elephant Pond which gets its name from the days of World War II when a circus got stuck at Salcey Woods.  The elephants that were part of the circus helped the war effort by hauling logs and at the end of their exhausting day they relaxed in and drank from the pond that is now known as the Elephant Pond!

For the vertigo sufferers (as you will have seen from the 2nd photograph above) there is a route that will miss out the Tree Top Way... but what fantastic views you will be missing if you do.  The next few photos will show you what to expect as you slowly but surely get higher and higher until eventually you are not only in the canopies of the trees, but above them!

After you have admired the views from the top of lookout point and make your way back to the Elephant pond you can continue one of the longer walks!   As you can see by the first photo below the paths are clearly marked and set out.

Along the way you will see Information Points with numbers on as shown in the second photographs, if you want to find out what these mean then you will need to buy a guide available from a machine near the toilets or from the cafe itself!  The third photo shows one of the many old oak trees that you will see on your walk.

Local Folklore

One day, many years ago a woodman went in to Salcey Forest to chop down an old oak tree, when all of a sudden a fairy appeared and begged him not to hurt the tree!  Slightly scared by the sudden appearance of the fairy the woodman agreed not to fell the tree.

As a reward the woodman was granted three wishes...

By the time the woodman got home he had forgotten all about the fairy and sat down near his fireplace.  Gazing in to the fire he became hungry and wished for some hog's pudding.  Suddenly there was a rustling noise coming down the chimney and out came some sausages that landed right beside his feet.

As this strange phenomenon occurred he remembered the three wishes he had been given and began to tell his wife of this tale.  He was promptly told off by his wife for wasting one of his three wishes and he muttered in anger "I wish those sausages were on your nose!" - Which they promptly did!

With much reluctance he had no option to wish the sausages would go away and he had now wasted all three wishes...