The Sculpture Trail is one of the most popular visitor attractions in the Forest of Dean - and it's FREE! There are currently 19 sculptures along this trail which was created 1986. In fact the trail had it's 21st birthday the weekend this cache was placed.
This is a great way to get your kids walking, as the next sculpture is never far away and you don't need a GPSr to find them. Just follow the blue arrows on the blue ringed posts.
Parking is available at Beechenhurst Lodge (fee payable) where there is a picnic area, shop, tea room and a great outdoor kids play area. Leaflets with a map and details of the sculptures can be bought here for £1. (Not required to complete this cache) Free parking is available near Speech House.
A fast adult could complete the trail in 1.5hrs, so leave plenty of time if you're doing this with kids. If you're a visitor to the area the idea is to make the morning or afternoon of it and just enjoy yourself. The Cathedral in the Forest cache can be bagged along the way.
Like any other multicache you should work out the final location once you have all the answers, rather than walk back to your car and then work out the location. The sculptures have been listed in the official sequence, which is also best for completing the cache. All obvious stuff, but some recent logs seemed to have caused confusion.
No backtracking is required from either of the recommended parking areas either. |
Image |
Sculpture Name |
Question |
Value |
|
Place (decommissioned Oct 2015) |
The number of pieces of timber in Place + 4 |
AB=11 |
|
Dead Wood (Bois Mort) |
How many grave stones? |
C |
|
The Heart of Stone |
You need to double back to get this one, so there's no question to answer. |
|
|
Black Dome |
No question |
|
|
Fire and Water Boats |
How many boats? |
D |
|
Iron Road |
How many spokes does the wheel have on 13th sleeper? |
E |
|
Searcher |
No question |
|
|
In Situ |
"Clear Circle Define ****" Number of letters in missing word. |
F |
|
Grove of Silence |
How many letters in the Italian word shown? Hint: The word contains a "Z" |
G |
|
Cone and Vessel |
No question |
|
|
Hill33 |
No question. Sculpture added early 2011. |
|
|
House |
How many stilts is House on? Grab a stick and hit it! |
H |
|
Smoke Ring |
No question |
|
|
Observatory (decommissioned 2014) |
Number of steps divided by 5 |
J=4 |
|
Raw |
No question. |
|
|
Echo |
No question. Sculpture added 20/7/2008. |
|
|
Cathedral |
Number of complete sheep on the glass. Do not count any sheep disected by framework. Answer should be an odd number. |
K |
|
Hanging Fire |
How many trees in and around it?
Work out final location now! |
L |
|
Melissa's Swing (decommissioned 2014) |
The kids will love this one, so don't miss it. No question. |
|
|
Farewell to the Forest |
No longer an official sculpture, but one of my favourites. Located near Place. No question. |
|
The cache is located at N51° JE.C(E-A)(H-J) W002° D(G-F).(G+B)(H+K)(L-B)
Apart from the final cache this can be done easily without a GPSr, so if you don't have a sensitive GPSr then don't worry that this is in the forest, but make sure you take the spoiler picture. This is great fun on a rainy day too, just wear sensible footwear.
You can download load the route as a GPX file by clicking the mapRoute button
Condensed versions of this page are also available. The full version lists all sculptures, while the lite version only lists sculptures required to complete the cache. Both pages include the spoiler photo.
Thanks to Carolyn (Sculpture Trust) and Denise (Forestry Commision).
For more details visit www.forestofdean-sculpture.org.uk/