Menu About Guide to Tolkien's Middle-earth.

The Druadan Forest was located in Anorien at the northeastern end of the White Mountains near Minas Tirith. The Great West Road ran along the northern edge of the forest before curving south to Minas Tirith. The Stonewain Valley cut through the southern edge of the forest at the foot of the White Mountains. At the far eastern end of the forest was a thicket of trees known as the Grey Wood.

Three of the Beacon-hills of Gondor were located in the Druadan Forest. The first was Amon Din, a rocky, barren hill on the eastern edge of the forest closest to Minas Tirith. Eilenach was in the middle, surrounded by pine trees. It was the highest point in the forest, but its sharp summit could only accommodate a small beacon. The third Beacon-hill was Nardol, on a ridge at the western edge of the forest. The trees around Nardol had been cut down and quarries had been dug nearby. There was a road leading from the quarries through Stonewain Valley to Minas Tirith.

The Druadan Forest may have been one of the first places in northwestern Middle-earth to be settled by Men. Historians of Gondor believed that the first Men to come west across the Anduin were the Druedain, who settled in the vales of the White Mountains and the forests on the northern side of the mountains. By the end of the Third Age, the Druadan Forest was one of the few places where the descendants of the Druedain still dwelled.