Timberland is now regarded as a long-term investment with both institutional investors and absentee owners. This paper utilises the IPD Forestry index to examine the performance of UK timberland over the period of 1987-2006. Forestry land in both Australia and the US was found to provide significant risk reduction and portfolio diversification benefits in the portfolio resulting from the low risk and low correlation with stocks and bonds. This paper will analyse the returns for UK forestry land to determine if similar benefits apply in the UK. Timberland has also been found to make a significant contribution to a portfolio of stocks, bonds and real estate, particularly at low to midrange portfolio risk levels. Again, the UK data will be analysed to see if similar benefits are provided the UK forest land asset class.