Our verdict
A proper, sizeable wood worth the drive out — quiet even by this area's low-key standards, so go if you want woodland to yourself rather than company.
A large Woodland Trust wood on a low limestone ridge above Fifehead Magdalen, deep in the Blackmore Vale. Bluebells and wood anemone carpet the floor each spring, and buzzards and woodpeckers are regular; the wood has kept roughly the same shape since Ordnance Survey mapping began in the early 1800s.
Woodland Trust wood — free to visit on foot, open every day.