Follow this trail along Lymington’s quiet coastal path, meandering through marshland and a marina, and concluding at a bustling market.
This circular, six-mile walk in the New Forest, Hampshire, which starts and finishes at Lymington Town station, offers a taste of the Solent Way trail, a coastal route stretching 60 miles from Milford-on-Sea to Emsworth Harbour. On this short walk, you could also take in the bustling market town and yachting centre of Lymington, with its pretty cobbled streets, and even pick up a bargain or two at the Saturday market, before heading to the tranquillity of the Lymington-Keyhaven Nature Reserve, home to wetland birds, plants and animals. Other points of interest on this walk are a 13th-century church and the historic salterns or salt marshes.
Leave the station, turn left on Mill Lane and continue to the end, going left along cobbled Quay Hill, with its shops and eateries (1). Turn left to Quay Street, following the signs to the Seawater Swimming Pool along Bath Road. Turn left after the Royal Lymington Yacht Club (2). Follow the path around to your right (3).
Pass through a gate labelled Lymington Yacht Marina. The Haven Bar & Bistro is in the building to your left and is a suggested refreshment stop (4).
Continue ahead to a tarmac road and turn right, then left, in 20m, following green signs marked Solent Way. At the next junction, turn left (5) to follow the path above the marshes to the next junction going left. Veering right by a gate, pass an information board with a map of the Lymington-Keyhaven Nature Reserve (6). Continue on the sea-wall path, ignoring any paths off, passing a memorial bench with wonderful estuary views. Ignore the path leading to Normandy Lane (7) and continue along the sea wall, still following the Solent Way signs, with Eight Acre Pond and its prefabricated clubhouse on your right. Turn right inland (8) and continue ahead.
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