Sherwood Forest

Ratcliffe Power Station | Sherwood Forest | Nottingham | Southwell

Voted No.1 Green Space in Britain...by Homebase customers. So, people with an inclination to chop up wood to make shelves like it. Well done Nottinghamshire County Council for this ringing endorsement of one of the naffest tourist destinations after Skegness.

If walking along a muddy path in a queue of other tourists is your bag, then this is the place to spend your weekend. Conveniently close to Centre Parcs, all is explained. As major world forests go, prepare to be underwhelmed. Maybe once it was big enough to hide the infamous men in tights, but today, at a mere 450 acres, it is a bit pathetic to put it mildly. To put it in context, that is the amount of rain forest destroyed every 8 minutes.

Highlight of any visit, the Major Oak, an 800 year old tree whose hollowed out trunk was purportedly a hiding place for Robin Hood, though at that point in history (the end of the twelfth century), it was no more than a sapling. Nice try, but no coconut!