On the afternoon of 2 August 1100, King William II of England, known to history as William Rufus, went hunting in the New Forest and never came home. The Rufus stone standing in a quiet Hampshire clearing today marks the traditional site of his death, and the question of exactly what happened there has never been fully settled.
Region: Hampshire, New Forest National Park
Best for: A short, easy stop combining royal history with New Forest woodland
Getting there: Off the A31, on a minor road near Brook village, between the Stoney Cross and Cadnam exits. Free roadside parking directly opposite the stone.
Time needed: 30 minutes to 1 hour, longer if combined with a woodland walk
A King Killed by His Own Hunting Party
William Rufus, the third son of William the Conqueror, had reigned as King of England since 1087, inheriting a kingdom his father had taken by conquest barely two decades earlier and ruling it, by most contemporary accounts, without much popularity even among his own nobility. On 2 August 1100, he rode out hunting in the New Forest, a royal hunting ground his father had created, with a small party that included a nobleman named Sir Walter Tyrrell, reputed to be the finest archer among the king’s companions.
The earliest surviving account, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, records simply that the king was “shot by an arrow by one of his own men.” Later medieval chroniclers filled in the detail that has been repeated ever since: that Tyrrell fired at a stag as it broke from cover, that the arrow deflected off a tree trunk, and that it struck the king in the chest, entering his lung and killing him almost instantly as he rushed forward toward the fleeing deer.
Accident, or Something Else
Tyrrell fled to France immediately after the king’s death and never returned to answer for it, a detail that has fuelled speculation for over nine centuries about whether the king’s death was really the accident it was recorded as. William Rufus had made genuine enemies during his reign, including his own younger brother Henry, who happened to be hunting in the same forest that day and who rode directly to Winchester to seize the royal treasury within hours of his brother’s death, then had himself crowned King Henry I just three days later, an extraordinarily fast sequence of events for a period when royal succession could otherwise take weeks to settle.
Historians today generally regard the death as most likely a genuine hunting accident, the kind of mishap that was not uncommon in an era of unregulated royal hunts with dozens of armed riders moving fast through dense woodland. The speed and convenience of Henry’s coronation, however, has never entirely stopped historians and popular writers alike from wondering whether Tyrrell’s arrow was quite as accidental as the official record suggests. Nine hundred and twenty-five years on, the honest answer is that nobody alive today can know for certain, and the ambiguity is a genuine part of the site’s appeal rather than a gap to be smoothed over.
The Stone That Marks the Spot
The stone standing in Canterton Glen today dates from 1745, more than six centuries after the event it commemorates, erected by a local landowner to mark what local tradition held to be the exact spot of the king’s death. An iron casing was added around the stone in 1841, specifically to protect it from vandalism and weathering, since the original stone had already begun to erode and had reportedly suffered damage from souvenir hunters chipping pieces away.
The precise location has always rested on tradition rather than contemporary record. No account written at the time of William Rufus’s death specifies the exact tree or clearing involved, and Canterton Glen’s identification as the spot developed over the centuries that followed, gaining enough local acceptance by the eighteenth century for a landowner to feel the story was solid enough to justify a permanent stone marker. Treat the “exact spot” claim, in other words, as a well-established tradition rather than a documented fact, alongside a genuinely documented royal death whose precise circumstances remain contested in a different way entirely.
Visiting Canterton Glen Today
The site itself is unassuming: a stone in an iron cage, standing in a small woodland clearing beside a minor road, with New Forest heathland and woodland stretching out on either side. There is no visitor centre and no admission charge. Coming from the south on the A31, the turning is on the left roughly halfway between the Stoney Cross and Cadnam exits. Coming from the north, take the minor road opposite the Bell Inn at Brook; the stone appears on the right, just past the Sir Walter Tyrrell pub, a few hundred metres along.
Free parking is available directly opposite the stone in a woodland clearing, and several easy footpaths lead off from the site into the surrounding New Forest woodland, giving the option of extending a brief stop into a longer walk through exactly the kind of terrain William Rufus would have been hunting through in 1100.
Practical Tips
Free parking is available directly opposite the Rufus Stone in a woodland clearing; there is no charge and no barrier.
Combine the visit with a walk on one of the easy footpaths leading into the surrounding New Forest woodland from the same clearing.
The Sir Walter Tyrrell pub, a short walk from the stone, makes a natural stop for food after visiting, named directly for the man traditionally blamed for the king’s death.
There is no visitor centre or interpretation panel beyond the stone’s own inscription, so read up on the story before you go if you want the full context on-site.
New Forest ponies roam freely across the surrounding heathland; give them space and do not feed them, in line with New Forest National Park guidance.
Responsible Visiting
The Rufus Stone sits on open New Forest land grazed by free-roaming ponies, cattle and pigs depending on the season. Keep dogs under close control near livestock, and stay on established paths through the surrounding woodland to avoid disturbing grazing land.
Reader Q&A
Was William Rufus definitely killed by accident? The historical record states he was shot by an arrow from one of his own hunting party, generally attributed to Sir Walter Tyrrell. Most historians consider it most likely a genuine accident, though Tyrrell’s flight to France afterwards and his brother Henry’s remarkably swift coronation three days later have kept alternative theories alive for over nine centuries.
Is the stone standing on the exact spot where the king died? The site is a long-established local tradition rather than a contemporary record; no account written at the time specifies the precise location. Canterton Glen’s identification as the spot developed over the centuries following the king’s death.
How old is the current stone monument? The stone dates from 1745. The iron casing protecting it was added in 1841 after damage from weathering and souvenir hunters.
Is there an entry fee to visit the Rufus Stone? No. The site is freely accessible with free parking directly opposite, in a woodland clearing beside a minor road off the A31.
What is the Sir Walter Tyrrell pub, and is it related to the story? It is a working pub a short walk from the stone, named after the nobleman traditionally blamed for the fatal arrow, and makes a natural food stop when visiting the site.
Where to Stay
The Bell Inn, Brook, close to the northern approach to the Rufus Stone, offers rooms alongside its restaurant in the heart of the New Forest.
Lime Wood Hotel, near Lyndhurst, provides a fuller New Forest base within easy driving distance of Canterton Glen for a longer stay in the area.
A Death Nobody Has Ever Fully Closed the Book On
Nine hundred and twenty-five years is a long time for a question to stay open, and the death of William Rufus has never quite closed, not because new evidence keeps surfacing but because the original record was thin enough from the start to leave room for doubt. The stone in its iron cage does not resolve any of that. It simply marks the spot where, by long tradition, the argument began, in a clearing that still looks very much like the kind of place a king could vanish from a hunting party in a single afternoon.
For more of Britain’s history worth seeking out, visit Secret Britain.
