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Ocknell Campsite is perfect for campers of all abilities. Situated on a quiet expanse of heathland with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside, this site offers direct access from your tent to beautiful heathland and forest walks, as well as the New Forest cycle route.
Facilities:
Rally field
Tents
Touring caravans
Motorhomes
Trailer tents
Jumbo tent pitches
Grassy pitches
Hardstanding pitch
Seasonal pitches
Toilets
Washbasins
Electric razor sockets
Some disabled facilities
Chemical toilet disposal
Drinking water taps
Dishwashing facilities
Ice pack freezing facility
Pets welcome
Just a short drive away is the tiny, but beautiful, village of Fritham with its thatched cottages, gorgeous lake, ducks and ponies wondering freely down the street.
At just over four miles long, Fritham Walk, one of the most popular walks within the New Forest, is a popular highlight. Looking north over Islands Thorns and Amberwood Enclosures as the route heads back towards the car park, film fans might recognise the landscape as Sherwood Forest from Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
At Bramshaw there is a well-stocked local shop, while a stunning short cycle ride takes you to Deer Viewing at Bolderwood and into the heart of the New Forest. A little further afield lies the cathedral city of Salisbury and the World Heritage Site of Stonehenge. After a busy day sightseeing, you can then return to your tent to experience all the wonders of the forest at night.
Please note that due to hard ground, rock pegs are essential at Ocknell.
Pitch types at Ocknell
There are 280 standard pitches at Ocknell, of which 150 are hardstanding
Longbeech campsite consists of beautiful open clearings overlooked by ancient beechwood which are a haven for local birdlife, including nuthatches, siskins, blue tits and coal tits. In addition, the campsite is often visited by the New Forest's famous, free-roaming ponies and deer.
Facilities
Tents
Touring caravans
Motorhomes
Trailer tents
Jumbo tent pitches
Grassy pitches
Seasonal pitches
No disabled facilities
Chemical toilet disposal
Drinking water taps
Pets welcome
Running through the campsite is a small network of narrow concrete roads, a reminder of the campsite's wartime history - this site was used as an airfield during the Second World War.
The campsite has direct access to beautiful heathland and forest walks, as well as the New Forest cycle route. Just a short drive away is the tiny, but beautiful, village of Fritham with its thatched cottages, gorgeous lake, ducks and ponies wondering freely down the street.
From Fritham runs one of the most popular walks within the New Forest - not least because of the proximity to the famous Royal Oak pub in the village serving great food and a range of ales drawn straight from the barrel. At just over four miles long, Fritham Walk offers a popular highlight. Looking north over Islands Thorns and Amberwood Enclosures as the route heads back towards the car-park, film buffs might recognise the landscape as none other than Sherwood Forest from Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
At Bramshaw there is a well-stocked local shop, while a stunning short cycle ride takes you to Deer Viewing at Bolderwood and into the heart of the New Forest. A little further afield lies the cathedral city of Salisbury and the World Heritage Site of Stonehenge, and after a busy day sightseeing return to your tent to experience all the wonders of the forest at night.
Please note that this campsite does not have electricity or toilets.
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We stayed at ocknell for the night, reasonably priced pitches in nice location with hot and cold taps in toliet area. No showers. Lovely setting with really good walks nearby. Theirs a few good pubs a few minutes drive away. Main gates close at 1030pm and open at 7am. The staff are actually quite good I would say firm but fair. Note: longbeech is a campsite about a mile away which is in a fantastic location but no toliet or washing facilities.
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Date of stay: July 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â Toilets with hot and cold taps but no shower. Gates close 1030pm open 700am. Check out 1100am
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I camped at Ocknell Campsite for two nights in early September. It was so beautiful there, with many glades amongst the silver birch trees in which to pitch the tent. The toilet/wash facilities were immaculate, no litter to be seen about the site, quiet, peaceful and beautiful, with ponies roaming freely. The only slight disadvantage to this site is the major A31 road which is fairly close and the traffic noise can be disturbing.
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Date of stay: September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This was the first time we've been camping since the lockdowns and what a way to get back to it! We stayed at Ocknell and it is far and away the best campsite we've ever stayed at.
The facilities are the bare essentials if you're in a tent - toilets and washing up sinks. What sets this place apart though is the location. The friendly member of staff on our arrival suggested various places to camp and we chose to go on the edge, facing onto a plain. It was quiet, even during the school summer holidays, we could walk straight out onto the plain. We had visitors in the way of ponies, horses, deer and birds at all times of day and night.
It was truly magical sitting outside the front of the tent at night in complete silence with hundreds of stars overhead and a herd of deer passing through within 10 feet of us!
So much to see in the New Forest, we will definitely be back!
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Date of stay: August 2021Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We have been here many times, in fact we were at sister site Hollands Wood 2 weeks earlier and had no issues. So on arrival in our professionally converted van that is also DVLA registered as a camper/motorhome that has things like gas vents, battery vents and gas checked, we were asked if we had side widows. When we said no we were told we could not stay on site, and we would now be refunded.
Well this was a tent trip with friends, so we would not be joining the lovely looking van infront of us with 2 angry campers who were now going home with their refund.
The rule is on the Camping in the Forest website, it is hard to find and does not pop up when you click camper van as your choice of accomodation. But it is there whatever other reviewers say, but why is it there?
The staff member who now looked deflated with our tent curveball, could not tell us why. All he would say is they were trying to clarify the rule with HQ. He said it was a way to stop plumber vans with a mattress in the back from using the site, and too right that should not be allowed. But there are many excellent conversions without a side window being penalised here.
We then had to prove we had a tent, which I did, but let me say if we were not seeing friends who were already on site I would have told the staff member to foxtrot oscar and taken the refund, that was bang out of order.
If there was an issue in the van we would simply open the big window on the side called a sliding door, or how about the large window and vents in the pop up roof. And if you are going to enforce the rule then vans with windows should be made to keep them open at all times otherwise they are no better off than a van without side windows.
I write this review at a Camping and Caravan Club site in the Midlands who welcomed us with open arms in our van, and they love a rule or ten. And we are on our way back from the Lake District where the site we stayed at had 3 rules, no noise between 11 and 8, 5mph and be considerate to other campers.
So after 15 years of staying at Ocknell it seems our time going there is coming to an end. The same happened with Ashurst a few years back when they had a jobsworth manager who imposed loads of rules and ruined many a trip, look at the old reviews about that.
Let's hope the same does not happen to Hollands Wood and Roundhill, or if it does that CITF do lose their sites in the New Forest because twice now they have shown to me they are maybe not the right people for the job.
Camping is meant to be fun, and people need to be allowed to take responsibility for their own actions and decision when on site. No fires, 6m rule, no loud music etc etc are good rules in the woods but no side windows on vans is pointelss and a step too far in my opinion.
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Date of stay: July 2021
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed for two nights and it was amazing with a 1 year old and a two year old we set up camp and away we went! Staff are absolutely amazing also. Toilets on site are spotless and the wildlife is a dream!
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Date of stay: May 2023
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We were spoilt staying here, having the small campsite to ourselves for most of our stay and clean shower/toilet facilities to ourselves the whole time. We even had access to a ‘fridge and free accessible power, with supplied lead!
There is no onsite shop, which may have been useful but not a problem as Minstead village is an easily accessible short stroll away and the likes of Lyndhurst, a short drive.
There’s a fire pit with seating around it and beautiful surroundings of a working farm, with occasional ‘residents’ coming on to the site itself to nibble the grass. What a joy that was for the children and adults alike!
The staff are extremely friendly and very helpful-very nice people in fact.
There is quite a lot of farm machinery and debris lying around, given that this is a working farm, so be aware that children need to be supervised and respect for the area is a must.
Anyway, we had a fabulous time. Thank you very much!
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Stayed at Ocknell recently and had a great time. Wardens were friendly and helpful, the site is big enough you can find your own little corner and miles of forest to walk in right from the site. Lots of horses, cows, donkey and deer wandering around so need to be aware and keep dogs appropriately contained, but was a lovely, peaceful break.
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
2 night break in July, lovely weather. Loads of room even at the weekend. Loads of animals about and a 50 min walk to the excellent Royal Oak in Fritham. Saw loads of deer on site which was brill. Sadly our daughter was either asleep or looking in the wrong direction. To the woman on Sunday morning who fed them, you are a idiot.
Nice welcome from Graham, the facilites are clean and work fine for our needs. And it was good to see the issue of Campervan side windows is no longer an issue on arrival, after the C&CC clarified the rule to someone who couldn't work it out for themselves. See you again later in the year, or worse case deffo in 2023.
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Date of stay: July 2022
Rooms
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I travelled all the way from Portsmouth with my partner to spend one night here with another couple. I paid for the minimum amount for 2 nights even though we were leaving the next morning.
However on arrival we rudely welcomed by Sue working on the main entrance. At the time in May some restrictions lifted and we were looking forward to seeing our friends after a long lockdown.
We were not allowed to stay because we didn't have our own toilet but I was happy to go and buy one from Southampton but she said you can't do that and refused us from staying. Bearing in mind public toilets were open everywhere and had our own tent to sleep outside. I did't understand why the toilets at their campsite were not open. I emailed twice to check they had refunded the full amount but did not receive any reply.
It is such a shame as it looks like a nice place but is poorly managed but certain staff members. Reading other reviews it seems common theme of extremely rude members of staff who need educating on how to communicate to customers. I would not recommend going, there are plenty of other campsites around.
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Date of stay: May 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This was our second trip to Ocknell and it remains one of our favourite campsites in the country.
We didn't experience any of the issues described by other people. There are rules about how close you could pitch your tent and not touching the wild animals etc, but these were explained politely to us on arrival and we found the staff to be friendly - happy to tell us about what was on at the local pubs and to pass the time of day with us.
The best thing about this site is its location. We pitched on the top "tents only" end, overlooking the plain and most mornings we woke up to deer, ponies and cattle within a few metres our tent - it really is idyllic. Lovely walks right from the tent, trees to climb and space to play for our daughter and a 40 minute walk to the Sir Walter Tyrrell pub, which served great food and had a free music day on while we were staying.
Overall another great stay and we will definitely be back.
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Date of stay: May 2024
Value
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hello,
Yes you can have guests visit. If they would like to drive in and park next to your pitch they will need a permit. These can be purchased from reception for £5
London, United Kingdom22 contributions13 helpful votes
unfortunately not, you can't burn any type of wood. You are allowed (to the best of my knowledge) to use any type of b b q as long as it's off the ground. best thing to do is call the site. If you speak to Sue she is spot on.
There are more places to choose from in the Fritham area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
ocknell and longbeech campsites hotel southampton
LOCATION
United KingdomEnglandHampshireFritham
NUMBER OF ROOMS
480
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