Millennium Forest

The Great Wood once covered a large part of St Helena's northeast until goats and timber-cutting stripped it to bare ground in the eighteenth century, leaving a stony plain, and from the year 2000 a project has been replanting it with gumwood, the island's endemic tree, along with other native species. Tens of thousands of trees are in and the ground is visibly changing. Visitors can plant a tree themselves.

What you actually see

• The gumwood planting - the island's endemic tree returned to bare ground.
• The stripped plain - the country that goats and timber-cutting reduced to stone.
• The scale - tens of thousands of trees planted since 2000.
• The visitor planting - the option of putting a tree in yourself.

When to go

Year round; the site is open and unstaffed most of the time. Planting is arranged through the trust. The plain is exposed and windy.

Honest expectations

The forest is young and low; this is restoration in progress rather than woodland. The site is exposed with no shelter. Interpretation is limited to boards.

Nearby

Deadwood Plain is west, and The Barn is northeast.