With very few tourists around, this was the right time – and perfect weather – for 9 of us to head over to Beaulieu and walk along the river to Buckler’s Hard, a place that once played a very big part in building warships for the Royal Navy. On arriving at Buckler’s Hard and establishing that the Master Builder was open, we took the opportunity to sit down in comfort and showed great strength of mind by opting for coffee rather than ale! We were fascinated by the plaque on the wall listing the names of the warships that had been built there but lacked a naval historian to give us more in depth knowledge.
The return to Beaulieu was intended to be along the board walk by the river but, sadly, this was closed to allow conservation work to take place so we had to simply re-trace our steps along the gravel paths.