Thorncombe Wood Local Nature Reserve

Surrounding Hardy’s Cottage is a designated ancient woodland full of beech, chestnut, oak and silver birch trees.

It appears in his second novel, “Under The Greenwood Tree”. A short walk through Thorncombe Wood – which is especially pretty when spring bluebells are in full bloom – takes you to Bhompston Heath, or rather Egdon Heath, the gorse-covered setting of “The Return Of The Native”.