Fox Wood Campsite - under the oaks

A good woodland campsite in the UK is a rare thing. But to find a woodland campsite that’s in a national park, allows campfires and is a 10-minute drive from the beach. That’s the stuff of dreams, right? Well, no. It turns out we’ve found it. And, not only is Fox Wood a joy, but it’s also huge, with acres of space to explore and individual glades and clearings that are good for groups and individual campers alike. It’s only open for the school summer holidays and weekends through spring and autumn. And, when it’s open, it’s the place to be. A forest hideaway that couldn’t be further from the humdrum of everyday life.

In the bottom of a gently sloping valley, just to the south of a long shelf that runs through the South Downs, Fox Wood is a 34-acre oak forest with around half set aside for tent-only camping. A track through the middle of the wood gives decent access, then you use wheelbarrows to take gear into the car-free camping space. For maximum privacy, it’s worth making the extra effort to lug your things right to the far end of the wood (around a three-minute walk), though, frankly, every pitch is wonderfully secluded and each comes with a metal fire pit to socialise around.

Visitors looking for a South Downs campsite with electrical hook-ups and plastic jungle gyms are in the wrong place. The forest is the playground here and, when it comes to facilities, Fox Wood still has the essentials families need. Excellent gas-powered showers are housed in oak-clad buildings (including some larger family cubicles) and there are proper flushing loos. Washing up areas have hot water – one alfresco row of sinks outside and second located in a repurposed mobile army building – and you can charge your phone at reception for a small fee. After that, what else do you need? 

As with all the best campsites, it’s the location that really does the hard work. The woods constantly chirp with the sound of wildlife and the canopy gently swooshes in the breeze. Below, footpaths link to footpaths and start a network of opportunities, as anyone with an OS map (or those into Geocaching) will tell you. You can easily drive to Goring Beach or Arundel Castle but countless walking routes take you straight into the South Downs from the campsite. Not that you need go far. Many campers wind their way in one of two directions: The World’s End or The Fox pub – each an easy and worthy stroll away. Proper woodland camping and a pub in easy reach. Now we’re talking!