Distance: 9.6 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk from Mansfield town centre out into the countryside of both the former Nottingham coalfield and Sherwood Forest. Ends up at the village of Edwinstowe with its connections to the Robin Hood legend including the Major Oak.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Robin Hood’s Major Oak

There is one legend which perhaps the Midlands is more internationally renowned for than any other. It is partially shared with Yorkshire, regional boundaries having always been very porous especially where people’s lives are concerned, and is centred upon the area of the former Sherwood Forest. As should be obvious from this description I write – of course – about the legend of Robin Hood.

Post-1066 a large tract of central and northern Nottinghamshire was incorporated into Sherwood Forest, a vast royal hunting park governed by its own highly restrictive legal code, which limited the rights of common people living within the Forest’s boundaries and of those who strayed within its bounds alike.

The key purpose of this so-called “forest law” was to preserve the enclosed woods and heathland for the royal families benefit. Maintaining their stocks of game animals like deer and the forestry resources for royal use as well. Famously punishments for those who transgressed by looking to harvest wood or game within the forest included harsh fines, imprisonment, forms of corporal punishment up to and including maiming, and even death.

For this reason it is perhaps unsurprising that myths grew up in the Sherwood Forest region and adjacent counties, about outlaws who lived freely in the woods, off the king’s resources, robbing other unpopular groups in society like the wealthy (and arguably hypocritical) monastic orders of the official church to redistribute resources to those in material need. With a degree of grounding in the reality of outlaw and bandit groups during the middle ages in Midland and Northern England, these social desires form the basis for the Robin Hood myths and legends which resonate to this day.

Indeed while tellings of the Robin Hood legend are typically set during the late 12th and early 13th Centuries during the reigns of Richard I and King John, two of the Middle Ages most controversial monarchs, the first written reference to a set of stories around Robin Hood comes from Piers Ploughman, William Langland’s longform prose poem written in the late 14th Century, and this reference is very fleeting.

As such, while the mythology and legend which has grown up around Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Little John, Friar Tuck, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Alan-a-Dale and the Abbot of St. Mary’s may well date back to the High Middle Ages, much of the written canon around the tales is actually post-Medieval. Indeed while the stories are well known and are frequently adapted as plays, television series and films to this day, as well as being constantly re-interrupted in print and oral tradition, the Robin Hood tales are more or less completely uncodified.

This said, over the centuries a consensus has coalesced around a number of locations associated with the legend. This village of Edwinstowe in mid-Nottinghamshire is central to this. Modern Edwinstowe is an affluent and growing place, also notable for having until 2015 been home to Thoresby Colliery, the last working deep pit in the Midlands region, and sits at the heart of the Robin Hood tourism industry.

There is a visitor centre on the outskirts of the village from where daytrippers and tourists can embark upon walks around the large patch of relatively undisturbed woods and healthland, declared a National Nature Reserve and rich with oak trees, north of Edwinstowe to get a sense of what Sherwood Forest was like in the Middle Ages. In the village itself the parish church of St. Mary’s – interesting in its own right – claims to be the place where Robin Hood married Maid Marion, though outside in the churchyard given that being an outlaw he could not wed in church.

While to the north of Edwinstowe inside the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve there lies the Major Oak. This ancient tree, perhaps not in the best of health and propped up by mighty metal struts, though potentially still with decades if not a century or two’s life in it, is purportedly where Robin Hood and his Merry Men would hide when pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham’s officers. It lies around half a mile north of the visitor’s centre and the edge of Edwinstowe, easily reachable from the village which has a pretty frequent bus service to both Nottingham and Mansfield.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This walk to Edwinstowe near the Major Oak and numerous other sites in Sherwood Forest associated with the legend of Robin Hood begins from Mansfield Railway Station which lies on the line between Nottingham and Worksop. Fittingly this railway is called the Robin Hood Line.

If travelling north from Nottingham upon alighting at Mansfield walk up the platform towards a gateway on your left out onto a path beside the main station building.

Here turn right and walk down a sloping path towards some steps which lead you down towards Mansfield Bus Station.

Once level with the bus station, walk forwards a short distance following the line of the tall viaduct which carries the railway above central Mansfield.

Upon reaching a main road just past the bus station turn right and walk beneath the viaduct following the road for a short distance.

At a junction straight ahead, take the wider left hand fork.

Keep walking straight ahead for a short distance until you see a road running off to the left on the other side of the road.

Turn left and follow this road downhill into Mansfield’s historic quarter.

Presently you come out at a junction opposite St. Peter and St Paul’s Church.

Here turn left passing the church, then right once you have passed it.

Follow the road you are now walking along, called Bridge Street, for some distance crossing a bridge over the River Maun, as it curves around until you reach the A60 dual carriageway.

Here use the crossing lights to your left to cross the busy main road.

On the far side keep walking straight ahead along a road called Radcliffe Gate, passing a pub called the Brown Cow.

A little after the Brown Cow pub you come to a road called Newgate Lane off on the left.

Turn left down Newgate Lane and follow it for quite some distance through suburban Mansfield.

After some distance you come to a junction with a church near its apex. Here take the wider right hand fork running uphill.

Presently you come to a junction with a dual carriageway. Use the crossing lights situated on your left to cross, then carry on straight ahead walking down the continuation of the road you have just walked up from the town centre.

Continue straight along this road for quite some distance.

Eventually you come to a modern flat roofed pub on your left called the Ling Forest Inn. Just before the pub there runs a residential road called Pump Hollow Lane.

Turn left and walk down Pump Hollow Lane, continuing past a bend in the road.

Just after the bend the road stops and there is a wide footpath running straight ahead through woodland.

Continue along this path a short distance as it runs gently downhill.

You emerge onto a housing estate.

Here turn right and follow a road past some bungalows on your left and a variety of other houses on your right, across the estate.

Soon you reach the busy Pump Hollow Road. Cross the road at this point via the traffic lights on your left.

On the far side of the road turn right following the cycle route signs for Clipstone onto what claims to be a bridleway, but is in actual fact an access road for several closely packed estates of houses of varying vintages from very modern to late 19th Century.

Keep on walking along this bridleway-cum-road for quite some distance.

Continue walking straight ahead when you come to the end of the paved road and it turns into a gravel track (a bit more akin to a regular bridleway) instead.

As you walk along it the gravel track steadily narrows.

Presently you reach a road right on the edge of the Mansfield built up area, which you cross, continuing along the bridleway on the far side.

A little way beyond the road you come to a junction where the track forks. Here take the narrower, more foot worn segment off to the right, running into a thicket.

Walk through the thicket until you emerge onto the forecourt of a camping and caravanning site.

Here follow the signs pointing to the right, and continue along the bridleway approaching the edge of the village of Clipstone, home to the rightly famous preserved post-war modernist Clipstone Colliery Headstocks.

Keeping on straight ahead you approach the Vicar Water Country Park, passing a car park on your left.

Vicar Water is a fishing lake created by the Earl of Portland in the 1870s and now managed by Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Continue along the path beyond the car park approaching Vicars Pool at the heart of the country park.

Upon reaching Vicars Pool keep walking straight ahead following the path around the edge of the lake.

At the far side of Vicars pool you reach a car park on your right.

Here, turn right and cross the car park.

On the far side of the car park there is another bridleway. Upon reaching this track turn left.

Walk along the track for some distance passing through a couple of short tunnels beneath former railway lines which once served the collieries in the area, several of which including Clipstone, were worked into the 21st Century.

After the two tunnels you reach a straight section of track which you walk along. Off to the left through gaps in the trees and undergrowth you can see the preserved Clipstone Colliery Powerhouse and Headstocks. The mine closed two decades ago in 2003, but the headstocks and power house were listed prior to the colliery closing, and endure as a unique occasional event space to this day.

Approaching a factory off to the right, walk straight ahead and continue along the bridleway.

Keep on walking along the bridleway passing through a few gates for quite some distance steadily approaching the village of King’s Clipstone and in the distance outline of some of the surviving wooded clumps of Sherwood Forest.

Off to the left as you walk you can see the remains of a former royal hunting lodge used by medieval monarchs when they visited Sherwood Forest, including King John in the early 13th Century.

After passing the ruins you approach the car park of The Dog and Duck pub. Cross the car park approaching the B6030 road.

Upon reaching the road, cross over the road and continue along an unpaved lane on the far side.

Passing a series of houses you approach a railway bridge. This line used to serve the area’s collieries but it remains maintained by Network Rail for train driver training and there is the potential that one day mainline services may be extended to the villages around Sherwood Forest.

Beyond the bridge continue walking along the track. You approach a junction on the path with another railway bridge on your left.

At the junction turn left and walk underneath the bridge. Carry on straight along the wide gravel path walking straight ahead towards a distant line of trees.

When you reach the woodland, part of Sherwood Forest’s ancient tree cover, continue walking straight ahead through the trees.

You pass a grand building called Archway House on the right with some dilapidated farm buildings off to the left.

Passing Archway House continuing straight ahead through the woodland.

Presently you reach the A6075 road.

Upon reaching the road, walk across and head to the left. Here there is a path which leads into the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.

Just after reaching the path turn right and follow it along the edge of the woodland for a short distance.

Keep walking straight ahead until the path curves around.

This leads onto a well maintained red gravel path which leads through a grassland strip surrounded by trees.

You walk along this path for quite some distance.

Presently you reach a display board on your left and a metal gate on your right. There is a waymark here which points in the direction of the Major Oak.

Here turn right and pass the metal gate walking into oak woodland.

Follow this path for quite some distance, just over a mile in total, through the woodland. You periodically pass waymarking posts as you walk straight ahead following the path.

Eventually you reach a wide junction.

Here turn right and you come upon the wide, gnarled, many branched Major Oak. Purportedly where Robin Hood and his Outlaws would hide from the Sheriff of Nottingham’s men and others sent to capture them.

Having passed the Major Oak you approach a picnic area. Here off on the left there is a path, which when I walked the route in September 2023, was lined with colourful standards representing the key characters in the Robin Hood legend.

Continue along this path to the left through the trees for quite some distance.

Presently you reach a junction. Here take the second fork to the right waymarked by a signpost pointing towards the Robin Hood Visitor Centre and Edwinstowe via the Robin Hood Way.

Keep on walking along the path for some distance.

You reach a four way junction. Here turn left and walk downhill in the direction of a cricket pitch on the edge of Edwinstowe.

Follow the path past the cricket pitch towards the edge of the village. Here off to the right there is the Robin Hood Visitor Centre and a couple of shops. While straight ahead down a road lies the edge of Edwinstowe.

At this point to reach Edwinstowe village centre keep walking straight down the main road in front of you.

Presently you reach a junction with a major road. Either carry on straight ahead into the centre of the village or turn left and walk towards the bus stop back towards Mansfield or south towards Nottingham.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

At the time of writing (in September 2023) Edwinstowe was served by a couple of very frequent bus services to Mansfield serving the town’s bus station right by the railway station. From Mansfield Railway Station there is a half hourly service south towards Nottingham (for trains to the south, the east and west) and an hourly service north towards Worksop where there are trains east towards Lincoln and west towards Sheffield. Edwinstowe also had an hourly service south towards Nottingham (taking just over an hour) called the Sherwood Arrow.