As you follow winding paths through Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean, don’t be too surprised if you come across a huge wooden chair or a deer spun from iron wire. They’re all part of the four-mile Sculpture Trail. Set up in 1986, it was designed to bring art into nature, with different artists commissioned to produce sculptures inspired by the forest. And almost 30 years on the project is still running, with 16 permanent and temporary artworks. I’ve been visiting since it opened and have some old favourites there since the start – like ‘Place’, a giant’s chair on a hillside overlooking the Cannop Valley, and ‘Iron Road’, a path of carved wooden railway sleepers on a stretch of disused railway track. Some sculptures are so subtle you could almost miss them, like the steel plates on the forest floor of ‘Dead Wood, and some are colourfully eye-catching, like the 15 foot by 10 foot stained-glass window of ‘Cathedral’, hanging between the trees.
The details
The Sculpture Trail starts from Beechenhurst Lodge in the Forest of Dean, where you can park and buy a map of the route for £1 (generally a good idea as the route isn’t always hugely clear and we’ve never made it round without getting slightly lost!). The trail is about 4.5 miles long and takes two–three hours (though there are a couple of marked shortcuts). Entry to the trail is free and the site is open from 8am to dusk. You can find out more about the project and each artwork on the the Sculpture Trail website.
27 Comments
Nadia Marken
April 28, 2015 at 11:42 amI loved this post; it makes me what to visit here as soon as possible.
Lucy
April 28, 2015 at 12:03 pmThat’s great, it’s a beautiful area – and really not all that well known.
darwinontherocks
April 28, 2015 at 12:38 pmI would love to visit Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean !!
Lucy
April 28, 2015 at 12:48 pmFantastic – it’s so nice to introduce people to the part of the world I come from!
darwinontherocks
April 28, 2015 at 12:54 pmThank you for doing so ! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known about this beautiful place 🙂
lettersfromk
April 28, 2015 at 2:13 pmI really love this post, what a wonderful idea!
Lucy
April 29, 2015 at 1:00 pmThanks, yes it’s a lovely idea to bring art and the forest together!
hannah @ traveling banana
April 28, 2015 at 2:51 pmReally cool! I love public art especially when it’s blended into an already beautiful scenery!
Lucy
April 29, 2015 at 1:04 pmThanks, yes the sculptors have all done such a great job of taking inspiration from the forest and creating such a range of different artworks.
Laura
April 28, 2015 at 4:34 pmWhat a cool idea! Sounds like it would be such a lovely walk.
Lucy
April 29, 2015 at 1:04 pmIt is – though even though I’ve done it five or six times I still manage to get lost most times!
ambitiouswanderer
April 28, 2015 at 4:49 pmHow amazing, I will need to start making seperate bucket lists for each country I want to (re)visit. Oh wait, I’m already doing that. Well, this is gonna go on the UK one! Would never have found this if it wasn’t for following you.
Lucy
April 29, 2015 at 1:05 pmThat’s great – it’s so nice to be able to show people some of the lesser-known places near where I live!
The Vagabond Baker
April 28, 2015 at 5:24 pmLovely! I haven’t been to the Forest of Dean for years, well, since I lived down in the midlands! Oh a lifetime ago!
The stained glass windows in the trees are gorgeous, there is something so wonderful about the way light plays in woodland.
Lucy
April 29, 2015 at 1:07 pmI love the stained glass window – especially as it’s decorated with pictures of the forest and the wild sheep that wander around. I grew up about 10 miles from the Forest of Dean but haven’t been back much for years, so it’s lovely to rediscover it again.
The Vagabond Baker
April 29, 2015 at 1:19 pmHow lovely, my ex’s family were from down there so we visited it just for a day. It was nice, I’d love to return.
shazza
April 28, 2015 at 5:30 pmArt in the forest is such a good idea. We once went to Grizedale Forest in the Lake District and there were pictures hanging up there. There is also a sculpture trail there too. It was Autumn and the theme was ‘Haunting’ so it was quite spooky but great. 🙂
Lucy
April 29, 2015 at 1:09 pmThat sounds great – I think it’s such a good idea to mix up nature and art, and get people seeing modern pieces that they might not think of going to a gallery to see.
Traveling Rockhopper
April 29, 2015 at 8:23 amgreat pictures!
Lucy
April 29, 2015 at 1:09 pmThanks so much!
Where's Zoe Now?
May 2, 2015 at 2:08 pmSo cool! I love this sort of art, it always feels much more accessible when it’s out of a formal gallery setting 🙂
Lucy
May 5, 2015 at 11:14 amI agree, it’s so nice to see it out among the landscape which inspired it.
roxellamay
May 3, 2015 at 2:00 pmThanks for sharing this information! I’m a huge fan of art and nature so this is a great place for me to visit!
Lucy
May 5, 2015 at 11:15 amGreat, hope you get to make the trip sometime!
Sketchpacker
May 29, 2015 at 6:49 amMy gosh what a beautiful idea! I love that glass painting, I can’t stop looking at it. How does an artist get involved?
Noelle
March 17, 2017 at 11:00 amThis is really cool! I was planning to go to Tintern Abbey at some point so this would be a good stop along the way as well!
Lucy
March 19, 2017 at 11:00 amThey’ve changed a couple of the sculptures recently so I must go back and check them out!