Explore Westonbirt’s ancient woodland with brand-new digital walking trail!

From today, Forestry England’s Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is inviting visitors to explore Silk Wood and the arboretum’s ancient woodland area, using a brand-new free digital walking trail.

The walk, called ‘Westonbirt Arboretum’s Silk Wood’ and created for Westonbirt’s Silk Wood Community Planting Project, can be found on the Go Jauntly platform, an award winning walking, wayfinding and nature connection app with over 22,000 monthly active users.

The easy-to-follow walk is packed with exciting photos, audio, and detailed descriptions of the many fascinating woodland features you’ll see along the trail, as it guides you around one of the oldest sections of the Arboretum – found as woodland on maps dating back to 1292! This walk is great for those looking to learn about the history, management, threats and conservation of our important ancient woodland - and gives the opportunity to meet some of the native trees that call it home.

The trail also provides a valuable glimpse into how Westonbirt is building a resilient woodland for the future, by exploring an area once devastated by Ash Dieback (a fungal disease that kills ash trees). The woodland is currently undergoing restoration, with 6,700 trees successfully planted so far over the last two years by local community groups.

Visitor Attraction Manager, Holly Firks-Matthews, says:

“It’s fantastic we can offer visitors a digital trail alongside our already popular daily in-person guided walks and family trails. We’ve also designed it so that visitors can download the trail for offline use, which saves data and helps when there’s not much signal – worth doing over Wi-Fi before you visit.”

Hanna Sutch, CEO and Co-founder of Go Jauntly adds:

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Westonbirt, The National Arboretum on this inspiring new walk-through Silk Wood. By blending storytelling, history, and nature connection, we hope to encourage more people to explore Westonbirt’s beautiful woodlands and learn how vital our trees are in tackling the climate crisis.”

You can download ‘Westonbirt Arboretum’s Silk Wood’ digital walk by searching ‘Westonbirt’ in the Go Jauntly app – available for free on both iOS and Android. 

See HERE!