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United Kingdom United Kingdom forest

Epping Forest

Diliff · CC BY-SA 3.0

67% trees around it and 1,515 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km67%
  • wild within 10 km60%
  • species recorded1,515
  • Altitude116 m

The forest around

67% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 98%Grassland 2%Built-up 0%Trees 63%Grassland 18%Water 0%Cropland 6%Built-up 14%Trees 36%Grassland 27%Water 3%Cropland 16%Built-up 18%Trees 29%Grassland 23%Water 2%Cropland 20%Built-up 27%67%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km98%
  • 1–3 km63%
  • 3–6 km36%
  • 6–10 km29%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees63%
  • Grassland18%
  • Water0%
  • Cropland6%
  • Built-up14%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

1,515 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Pedunculate Oak
Pedunculate OakQuercus robur189 recordsAlgirdas at Lithuanian Wikipedia · Public domain
English holly
English hollyIlex aquifolium189 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Common Hawthorn
Common HawthornCrataegus monogyna189 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
AshNT
AshFraxinus excelsior172 recordsWillow · CC BY 2.5
Blackthorn
BlackthornPrunus spinosa162 recordsSphingonotus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Field Maple
Field MapleAcer campestre147 recordsWillow · CC BY-SA 2.5
Hornbeam
HornbeamCarpinus betulus138 recordsBotaurus · Public domain
Himalayan Balsam
Himalayan BalsamImpatiens glandulifera136 recordsGuptaele · CC BY-SA 4.0
Sycamore
SycamoreAcer pseudoplatanus136 recordsChristian Pirkl · CC BY-SA 3.0 at
Garlic Mustard
Garlic MustardAlliaria petiolata130 recordsO. Pichard · CC BY-SA 3.0
European Beech
European BeechFagus sylvatica129 recordsMalene Thyssen · CC BY-SA 3.0
Garden vetch
Garden vetchVicia sativa125 recordsDidier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

66out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 67%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 60%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 1,515Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 116 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking in June and in September.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan7°2°65 mm
  2. Feb7°1°54 mm
  3. Mar10°2°50 mm
  4. Apr14°4°42 mm
  5. May17°7°55 mm
  6. Jun20°10°56 mm
  7. Jul23°13°60 mm
  8. Aug22°12°66 mm
  9. Sep20°10°44 mm
  10. Oct15°8°74 mm
  11. Nov10°4°74 mm
  12. Dec7°2°71 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Epping Forest.

Royal forest in England

Epping Forest is a forest in United Kingdom.

Seen from space, 67% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 60% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

1,515 species have been recorded around it: 955 plants, 314 fungi, 218 birds and 28 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Pedunculate Oak, English holly and Common Hawthorn.

The best time to walk is in June and in September.

Epping Forest Centenary Walk 2 - Sept 2008
Diliff · CC BY-SA 3.0

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Epping Forest seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 18marked trails within 5 kmEssex Way (Epping to Stratford St Mary), Three Forests Way, Greenwich Meridian Trail and 15 more
  • 64named and notable trees within 6 kmGilwell Oak, Grimston's Oak, Swing and 61 more
  • 18picnic sites within 4 kmHigh Beach and 17 more
  • 20shelters and huts within 6 km
  • 10viewpoints within 5 kmLippitts Hill, Yardley Hill, Pole Hill and 7 more
  • 2visitor centres within 6 kmEpping Forest Visitor Centre, Waltham Abbey Tourist Information Centre
  • 176car parks within 3 km
  • 23campsites within 10 kmThe Elms Campsite, Debden House Centre, Debden House Holiday Park and 20 more
  • 70places to stay within 10 kmPremier Inn, London Chigwell Prince Regent Hotel, The Thatched House Hotel and 67 more
  • 67restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Epping Forest.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas9 mountains within 25 km
Lippitts Hill2.3 kmPole Hill4.4 kmHighgate Hill17 kmParliament Hill95 m · 18 kmTower Hill14 m · 19 kmLudgate Hill18 m · 19 kmPrimrose Hill65 m · 20 kmCampden Hill24 km
Lakeyas5 lakes within 15 km
King George V Reservoir2.0 km² · 5.0 kmWilliam Girling Reservoir1.5 km² · 5.9 kmBanbury Reservoir0.5 km² · 8.4 kmLow Maynard Reservoir0.8 km² · 10 kmWest Warwick Reservoir1.1 km² · 11 km
Darkskyas4 dark-sky places within 30 km
Bayfordbury ObservatoryBortle 5 · 16 kmRoyal ObservatoryBortle 9 · 21 kmBishop ObservatoryBortle 9 · 21 kmUCL ObservatoryBortle 9 · 21 km
Viewyas1 viewpoints within 15 kmComing soon
ArcelorMittal Orbit14 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Ambresburg Banks in Epping Forrest in London, August 2013 (1)
Chmee2 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Epping Forest Visitor Centre High Beech Essex England
Acabashi · CC BY-SA 4.0
Epping Forest pollard
Jynto ( talk ) · Public domain

Other forests nearby.

Epping Forest

United Kingdom

  • 66Forestyas Score
  • 67%Trees
  • 60%Wild
  • 1,515Species

Claremont

United Kingdom · 44 km

  • 72Forestyas Score
  • 57%Trees
  • 75%Wild
  • 2,213Species

See the guide

Ashdown Forest

United Kingdom · 65 km

  • 78Forestyas Score
  • 66%Trees
  • 92%Wild
  • 1,460Species

See the guide

Painshill

United Kingdom · 50 km

  • 72Forestyas Score
  • 52%Trees
  • 83%Wild
  • 2,181Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q1347643) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species78,408 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Islandyas, Lakeyas, Darkskyas, Viewyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.