Haldon Forest Park - Forestry England

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Haldon Forest Park - Forestry England A haven of 3,500 acres of woodland just 15 minutes from the historic city of Exeter.
(1500)

Autumn's calling you for a walk in the forest this weekend 🌳Catch up with friends over cake and a cuppa, take a book and...
22/10/2026

Autumn's calling you for a walk in the forest this weekend 🌳
Catch up with friends over cake and a cuppa, take a book and some time for yourself.

📣 Are you our next Recreation Ranger?Full time | Fixed term to March 2029 | £30,105 pa | Closes 2 NovemberHaldon Forest ...
21/10/2026

📣 Are you our next Recreation Ranger?

Full time | Fixed term to March 2029 | £30,105 pa | Closes 2 November

Haldon Forest Park rangers work together with our Visitor Services team to create an outstanding visitor experience. The ranger team's responsibilities include site safety, facilities maintenance, building relationships with site partners and stakeholders, and contract management. We'd particularly like to hear from candidates with working knowledge of cycle trail grading and design.

If you have relevant experience, the initiative to get things done, and the team spirit to do it together, apply now at https://careers.forestryengland.uk/jobs/job/Recreation-Ranger/826

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂We estimate that in the 1990s, Haldon Forest received about 5000 visitors...
20/10/2026

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂

We estimate that in the 1990s, Haldon Forest received about 5000 visitors per year. By 2006, the forest received around 80,000 visitors each year. In 2026, the forest welcomes around 500,000 (half a million) visitors each year.

Half a million smiles, half a million memories - Each and every one making Haldon such a special place💚

📸Local cyclists pose for a photo back when we first opened, in April 2006/The lovely June, at 95 years young! enjoying Haldon on a Tramper in September 2021/Riders bringing their beautiful horses to the woods in 2025.

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂In 2026, Haldon Forest will absorb and lock up CO2 equivalent to the elec...
19/10/2026

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂

In 2026, Haldon Forest will absorb and lock up CO2 equivalent to the electricity that 1900 households will use. In total, the forest holds the carbon equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 68,000 average households.

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂“A day out is made perfect by the moments we pause to savor it."Taking a ...
18/10/2026

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂

“A day out is made perfect by the moments we pause to savor it."

Taking a cafe break on a busy day of exploring is one of life's simplest pleasures, and from the start we have had a café on site for those moments to stop, refuel, relax and take a break.
Going from a stand-alone, basic and much smaller building, the café has evolved over the years with the addition of a new frontage, side windows, rear decking and linking to the building by its side. That building has had many incarnations – Forestry store, the CCANW Building, an outdoor education centre, studio space and now take away coffee and food stop.
The main café was, for many years, the Ridge Café but earlier this year became Haldon Forest Park Café following a complete refurbishment.
Over 20 years the partnership between café and forest has provided the perfect place to Collect moments, chase views, and always stop for cake.

📷Pictures of the café building and how its developed over the years.

Some places just make Sundays better. 🌲
18/10/2026

Some places just make Sundays better. 🌲

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂The great snow of 2009 was an exceptional and highly unusual year for sno...
17/10/2026

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂

The great snow of 2009 was an exceptional and highly unusual year for snowfall at Haldon Hill.
Heavy snow hit the A38 at Haldon Hill in Devon on the night of February 5, 2009, causing major travel chaos. The storm was a sudden, unexpected blizzard.
Up to 8 to 12 inches (approx. 20–30 cm) of snowfall dropped in just a few hours. Nearby Okehampton recorded a massive 55 cm (22 in) of snow cover, marking one of the most severe single-night snow accumulations the region had seen in decades.
Around 200 to 500 motorists became stranded in their vehicles as traffic ground to a halt. Soldiers were deployed directly alongside the police in Army and police rescue teams using specialized four-wheel-drive military vehicles. They navigated the massive drifts to reach trapped motorists, transporting them safely to the emergency rest centres at Chudleigh Town Hall and Exeter Racecourse on Haldon Hill.
Prior to 2009, Devon had experienced a long stretch of relatively mild winters. The suddenness and sheer volume of the snow caught the Highways Agency and motorists completely off-guard, transforming the A38 into a standstill overnight.
At the time, emergency services and meteorologists treated the February 2009 gridlock as a historic, once-in-a-career anomaly. However, it ended up serving as the opening act for the UK's "Big Freeze", when another exceptional wave of severe winter weather struck Haldon Hill less than a year later, and forcing a 5 day closure of Haldon Forest Park in January 2010.
The severity of both events led local authorities and the Highways Agency to later design a multi-agency Haldon Hill severe weather response plan and the creation of new systems that are used today.

📷 1: DSRT Ashburton response to Haldon Hill snow event 2010(Image: Pete Sherman)2-4: 2009 Snowfall, tree canopies sagging at the weight of the snow and locals swarming to Haldon Forest Park to enjoy the woods tuned white.

Are you on the lookout for some magical autumn adventures? 🍂 Gather the gang and fly through the colourful trees with Wi...
17/10/2026

Are you on the lookout for some magical autumn adventures? 🍂
Gather the gang and fly through the colourful trees with Witch, Cat, Dog and Bird on our Room on the Broom Trail 🧙

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂Throughout our 20 year history, improving access to the outdoors has been...
16/10/2026

🎉Celebrating 20 years of Haldon Forest Park! 🌲🎂

Throughout our 20 year history, improving access to the outdoors has been a priority for Haldon Forest Park. Investment in wide and well-surfaced trails, a mobility hire service, frequent seating, and subsidised fitness courses have all helped people to discover the countryside in the way that meets their needs.
Through our partnership with Countryside Mobility, Haldon Forest Park provides all-terrain mobility scooters (called Trampers) to help visitors with limited mobility explore the forest. This partnership enables access to multiple trails and forest roads that would otherwise be difficult to navigate with standard mobility equipment.
Back in 2014 we were one of the first hire locations to partner with Countryside Mobility to help them trial and provide this service and have become a firm favourite with Tramper users ever since, with our current fleet of 3 Trampers being in constant use.
We’re proud to be part of the vision of making the countryside accessible, invest financially in the provision of our Trampers, and provide staff time for hiring and maintaining the routes used.
Visit the Countryside Mobility website via this link 👉 https://countrysidemobility.org/

📷 March 2014 Haldon Forest Park Manager Louise Cornish onboarding with James Maben of Countryside Mobility at the start of the testing phase of mobility scooters for the charity’s initiative/2017 one of Countryside Mobility FB posts announcing Southwest locations involved in the growing scheme/2024 a heart-warming affirmation of how life changing the scheme here at Haldon is.

See the forest in a whole new light this autumn with the return of Go Ape!’s Sundown Adventures. Become a creature of th...
16/10/2026

See the forest in a whole new light this autumn with the return of Go Ape!’s Sundown Adventures. Become a creature of the night and challenge yourself to one of their high rope’s activities after-dark. Tickets available to book now! Check our website or search 'Haldon Sundown'.

Address

Bullers Hill
Exeter
EX67XR

Telephone

+443000675826

Website

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