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Run by the Forestry Commission. You can "Go Ape" (yes, that's what they call it) on a harness and swing around a large assault course suspended in the treetops. The adventure playground for kids is also excellent if you're taking a family. Sherwood Pines also host "Forest Live" rock concerts, check their website.
Visitor Centre
Can get very busy but includes an interesting display about the forest's history and ecosystem. Café and toilets here. Dogs welcome.
About ½ mile from the Centre along a well-marked, wheelchair accessible track. The Major Oak is the oldest of the more than 900 ancient oaks here and could well be 1000 years old. (So in Robin Hood's time it was small and insignificant, the obvious meeting point was at Thynghowe.) This part of the forest can be busy but carry on to find quiet glades and mysterious paths.
Dates from 1185 so hundreds of forest dwellers have been baptised, married and buried here. Inevitably it's touted as the place where Robin Hood and Maid Marian got married, but since she only showed up in legend 300 years later, she sure kept him waiting.
Run by the National Trust, this extensive park has an elegant serpentine lake. Formerly the home of the Dukes of Newcastle, but the mansion fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1938. The 1889 Church of St Mary (not to be confused with the one in Edwinstowe) remains in use and is a Grade I listed building in Gothic Revival style.
Rufford Park
Ruins of Cistercian Abbey, and part-ruined part-restored mansion house, set in an extensive park.