Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous by its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood.

The area has been wooded since the end of the Ice Age (as attested by pollen sampling cores). Today, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve encompasses 423.2 hectares,1,045 acres (4.23 km2), surrounding the village of Edwinstowe, the site of Thoresby Hall.

The forest that most people associate with Sherwood Forest is actually named Birklands and Bilhaugh. It is a remnant of an older, much larger, royal hunting forest, which derived its name from its status as the shire (or sher) wood of Nottinghamshire, which extended into several neighbouring counties (shires), bordered on the west along the River Erewash and the Forest of East Derbyshire. When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, the forest covered perhaps a quarter of Nottinghamshire in woodland and heath subject to the forest laws.