Beaumont-Hamel is a village 9km north of Albert situated in a valley that leads to the River Ancre.

Beaumont-Hamel is inextricably linked with the fate of the Newfoundland Regiment following their huge losses on 1 July 1916.

Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt was a German front-line fortification west of the village of Beaumont Hamel on the Somme. It was the scene of a number of costly attacks by British infantry during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

In preparation for the attack on 1 July 1916 the British had driven long underground tunnels from their lines through the chalk towards the German lines to plant a mine it was thought would be both big enough and powerful enough to destroy completely the German fortress of the Hawthorn Redoubt.  It had taken seven months to dig the tunnel.

The main attack at Beaumont-Hamel on 1 July 1916 was mounted by the 4th Division to the north of the village and the 29th Division to its south.

The Allied and German positions at Beaumont-Hamel remained unchanged from the outset of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 until the village was eventually captured in November 1916 when it fell to the 51st (Highland) Division.

After the Armistice the Newfoundland Government bought an 84 acre piece of ground at Beaumont-Hamel for a Memorial Park.  The park was opened on June 7 1925 by the then Earl Haig.

The trenches were preserved just as they were left in 1918, thought today they are grass covered and mostly little more than shallow ditches.

One of the notable features of Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park is the ground has been left as it was when the conflict ended in 1918.  The outlines of the trenches can still be clearly discerned, together with the remains of shell holes.

At the entrance to Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park is a tablet with the words of a poem by John Oxenham.

The text reads:

The Memorial to the Newfoundland Missing is in the form of a caribou.  The memorial is located in Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park.

Near the entrance to Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park is situated a memorial to the 29th British Division, the division of which the Newfoundland Regiment was a part.

The 51st (Highland) Division Memorial at Beaumont-Hamel commemorates the soldiers of the 51st (Highland) Division killed during World War I.

The memorial is located near Y Ravine in Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park. This position had been the scene of the Division's first major victory on 13 November 1916 during the closing stage of the Battle of the Somme.

The infamous Y Ravine is an unusual natural land formation used as a fortress by the Germans and now adjoining Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park.

Y Ravine Cemetery was made by the V Corps in the spring of 1917, when the battlefields around Beaumont-Hamel were cleared.

Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No.2 is located in what was no mans land on 1 July 1916 between the British and the German front lines.

The front lines were situated on a ridge of high ground called the Auchonvillers Spur running in a south-easterly direction. A hawthorn tree was growing on this high ground and so the ridge became known as Hawthorn Ridge by the British Army when it moved in to occupy the front line here in August 1915.

Hunter's Cemetery (the origin of the name may refer to a Chaplain attached to the Black Watch, the Rev. Hunter) is built in what was a huge shell-hole – hence it’s unusual circular shape.

The enormous crater on Hawthorn Ridge is located immediately west of Beaumont-Hamel, between the village and the Memorial Park.

Beaumont-Hamel British Cemetery is situated in the old no man’s land.  It  was started after Beaumont-Hamel was taken on 13 November 1916 and used until February 1917.

The 8th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Memorial is constructed almost on the site of their battalion headquarters at the time of the capture of Beaumont-Hamel. The position is close to the Sunken Road and the signal for the attack was the second blowing of a mine under Hawthorn Ridge.

Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No.1 is situated on the old front line of July 1916 near Beaumont-Hamel.

Knightsbridge Cemetery is named after a communication trench and was begun at the outset of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Mesnil Ridge Cemetery near Mesnil contains the graves of 94 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Newfoundland.

Ancre British Cemetery is located in what was no man’s land in November 1916. The cemetery is located in a ravine that made it very difficult for the soldiers as they advanced towards the German lines up the hill.