A modern-day wood carving resembling the Bisterne Dragon, that supposedly expired and became Bolton’s Bench (another Komoot highlight!), just E of Lyndhurst, about a quarter of a mile distant.
There is a New Forest tradition that a dragon once had his den at Burley. There are several versions of the tale, one being that the creature "flew" every morning to Bisterne, where it would be supplied with milk.
In order to kill the dragon, a valiant knight (usually named Berkeley) built a hide, and with two dogs lay in wait. The creature came, as usual, one morning for its milk, and when the hut door was opened the dogs attacked it, and while thus engaged the knight took the dragon by surprise, the dogs dying in the affray.
The dragon slayer himself, says another version of the tale, only succeeded by covering his armour with glass, and a popular telling of the story has it that the fight raged throughout the forest, with the dragon finally died at Bolton’s Bench.
Though the knight had defeated the dragon he had been mentally broken by the battle, and after thirty days and thirty nights he went back to Bolton's Bench to die alone atop it, his yew-wood bow falling on the ground beside his body and eventually sprouting into the yew tree which can still be seen today.