Borthwood Copse, Isle of Wight
Paths wind through ancient oak woodland with sunny glades
Borthwood Copse is a delightful spot to wander amongst ancient oak and beech trees, sunny glades and chestnut and hazel coppice. You may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a red squirrel as it scurries through the upper branches in search of food.
Borthwood Copse used to be part of a much larger Medieval hunting forest in which the landscape would have been more open like parts of the New Forest. The landscape is more densely wooded now.
The wood features traditional coppice management of hazel and sweet chestnut and the produce is used at various locations on the island. Traditional woodland management helps to keep a variety of wildlife such as bluebells, red squirrels, dormice, woodland bats. Borthwood Copse is noted for its many rare beetles and other insects which depend on the decaying wood in the older trees.
