Two visitors find a suitable fallen log to sit on in Borthwood Copse — Taking a break in Borthwood Copse | © National Trust Images / John Millar

Isle of Wight

Borthwood Copse red squirrel walk

This short atmospheric walk in a secluded part of the island takes you through woods that are home to a special resident of the Isle of Wight, the red squirrel. It is a particularly beautiful place to be when the trees take on their autumn colours in October and early November. In spring the woodland floor is carpeted with bluebells.

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Total steps: 5

Start point

Parish Council car park, off Alverstone Rd on Winford to Alverstone road, grid ref: SZ566843

Step 1

Enter the wood and start to descend. The path soon reaches a cathedral-like clearing of beech trees with fallen logs offering good places to sit.

Trees and traditional woodland management

This walk takes you through beautiful ancient oak woodland which is traditionally managed with hazel and sweet chestnut coppice and particularly colourful in October and early November. Enjoy the stands of russet-coloured beech in the glade in the middle of the wood and the golden leaves of the birch. We use some of the oak and chestnut wood to make wooden hurdles, gateposts, and fence materials, like our paling fence at Bembridge Windmill.

Step 2

Bear left immediately on entering the clearing and take a rising path, the left-most of two paths leaving the clearing at the same point. Pass through a holly thicket on the way to the top where it begins to open out near the edge of the wood. Bear right to descend again just before some house gardens. Bear left at a junction, following the line of the boundary of the gardens and soon the path broadens out in a clearing by an oak tree. Follow this track onwards and downwards, bearing right at a junction to meet an even wider crossing track 25yds (25m) further on.

Flowers, butterflies and birds

Interesting flowers include wood anemone, wood sorrel, primroses and foxgloves. In spring the woodland floor is carpeted with bluebells. Look out for woodland butterflies along rides and glades such as brimstone, speckled wood and white admiral. Flowers and insects both benefit from the extra sunlight when trees are felled and coppiced. Various woodland birds can be seen and heard such as great spotted woodpeckers, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and great tits.

A mass of bluebells carpet the ground in Borthwood Copse — A mass of spring bluebells in Borthwood Copse | © National Trust / Chuck Eccleston ARPS

Step 3

Turn right and follow this main track almost to the edge of the wood, ignoring all side paths. Over its length, the path rises gently through a gully, then falls, and rises again.

Red squirrels

Borthwood is one of the best places to spot red squirrels, especially following leaf fall, as they live in the tree tops and build their nests, or dreys, high up in the branches. They don’t hibernate but bury tree seeds for winter food. They also eat nuts, shoots, leaves, fungi and insects. Unlike their larger grey cousins, they don’t eat acorns as they cannot digest the tannins. We coppice hazel on rotation so that there is always a good crop of nuts for these delightful small mammals.

Secretive inhabitants of Borthwood: the red squirrel and the dormouse — There is a good chance of seeing red squirrels in Borthwood, but dormice keep well hidden | © National Trust Images / Chris Lacey (squirrel) and Ross Hoddinott (dormouse)

Step 4

Eventually you will see a field through the trees to the left. Just before a right bend that leads to a stile 90yds (80 m) away and out of the wood, turn right along a narrow westerly path which follows the line of the edge of the wood. It rises gently, emerging shortly after another holly thicket close to a fence into a field on the left. Turn sharp right here and follow the path downwards, past yet more holly, to a crossing track.

Dormice

Dormice are common here in Borthwood, although rarely seen as they are mainly nocturnal and hibernate in winter. They have gingery fur, big black eyes and a furry tail. Sometimes they spend their whole life in the tree canopy, eating hazelnuts, buds, berries and insects. Hazelnut shells with neat round holes are a sign that dormice are present, whereas squirrels will leave a jagged hole in the shell. In cold wet weather, or if food is scarce, dormice preserve energy by going back to sleep.

Step 5

Cross the track and continue ahead into the beech wood clearing. Bear left along the edge of the clearing and rejoin the original path. Turn left back to the car park.

An old medieval hunting forest

Borthwood used to be part of a much larger area of medieval hunting forest and would have looked more like part of the New Forest with scattered trees and heathland. Isabella de Fortibus, the self-proclaimed medieval ‘Queen of Wight’, is said to have watched the deer hunt from a vantage point called Queens Bower, at the north-west corner of Borthwood. Isabella inherited the lordship of the island from her brother and made Carisbrooke Castle her home.

End point

Parish Council car park, off Alverstone Rd on Winford to Alverstone road, grid ref: SZ566843

Trail map

Borthwood Copse Red Squirrel walk map | © Crown copyright and database rights 2015 Ordnance Survey

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near Winford, Isle of Wight, PO36 0LD

01983741020

isleofwight@nationaltrust.org.uk

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Borthwood Copse red squirrel walk

Total steps: 5