Yes, Sherwood Forest is indeed a real place. With every other aspect of the Robin Hood stories seemingly legend, it’s completely forgivable to have thought his wooded refuge was legend too.
The truth is it’s part of the United Kingdom’s national park system. It’s actually categorized as a royal forest, which means it’s the remnants of a royal game preserve: where deer and foxes and all manner of furry, woodland creatures were allowed to flourish and frolic, carefree, until the king or any of his fortunate designees blew them away or pinned them to a tree with a crossbow.
Owing to that past as more of a playground than preserved wilderness, Sherwood Forest is not the kind of wild forest managed by the US National Park system. Instead, it’s more of a recreation park, with a children-centric visitor’s center, miles of clear and wide walking trails, and the ABC’s of English trees (Ash, Beech, and Chestnut) with mostly thin undergrowth.
The day we visited was during a week-long mid-term break, with the local schools closed. The park, as a result, was well-visited with children and families. It was a beautiful, cool, fall day, not common for the British Isles, an ideal day for a walk in some very old woods, parts of which date from the last ice age. Sherwood Forest’s two main sights-to-see (such as they are) are a giant, ancient oak called The Major Oak, estimated to be close to a thousand years old, and an archaeological site called Thynghowe, a Danelaw small-claims-court-in-the-woods of sorts for a couple of local Anglo Saxon kingdoms. We saw the former but skipped the latter in favor of finding a nice, hot tea (yes, folks, Chuck is now an English tea drinker).
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| Robin Hood and Little John Battle On The Bridge |
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| Robin Hood, Archer |
But you don’t want to hear all that historical garbage, do you? You want to hear about Robin Hood, don’t you? It’s true that the name of Sherwood Forest is inextricably tied to Robin Hood and his legend. Even if they can’t tell you its origin in the legend, they know Sherwood Forest is where he hid out, perhaps where he ambushed rich people on their way south to Nottingham or London or north to York. Given the types of trees, the gently rolling landscape, and its proximity to Nottingham, it’s easy to imagine it as Robin Hood’s wooded refuge. That it was a royal hunting ground, making trespassing a treasonous offense, only adds to the Robin Hood outlaw vigilante mystique.
But fact ends there. The park’s displays on Robin Hood are quick to offer “legend has it…” and “the traditional location where…” when describing certain spots, but as the whole Robin Hood story is legend, it’s impossible–however fun–to point to a tree and say, “That’s where Friar Tuck fell off his horse, drunk, and hit his head.” The Major Oak, for example, is billed as where Robin Hood and Maid Marian were supposed to have hidden, but this is more likely because the tree has a curious curve to its trunk that creates a nice, cozy little space for two, romantic in both the affection and literary senses.
If you’re passing through Nottinghamshire and want to visit Sherwood Forest, set your navigation system to the Visitor’s Center at the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve rather than the Sherwood Forest Country Park: it will save you a half hour of aimless driving.
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| The Major Oak |
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| A Stretch of Sherwood Forest’s Walking Trails |
