50 Walks in Dorset Guidebook

by: Ann F Stonehouse
A dark diamond of green velvet on the patchwork quilt of English counties is how many people imagine Dorset. Much of the county is a rural idyll, free of motorways; a place where life is in the slow lane. Wonderful for peaceful and relaxing walking along an intricate network of lanes and byways, broad green droving roads and bridle paths.

Lively Lyme Regis, in the southwest, is a classic seaside holiday town. It offers unrivalled access to Dorset's western coast, with its pretty little villages, its crumbly golden cliffs and the remarkable long shingle strand that is Chesil Beach. Shaftsbury, at the northern point of the Dorset diamond is a bustling market town set on a high hill, the key to the chalky sweep of Cranborne Chase and the fertile flats of the Blackmoor Vale. The stately town of Dorchester, not far inland from the south coast, has associations with Thomas Hardy's Wessex tales.

This guide explores some of the best of Dorset's countryside. It includes 50 themed walks of between 2 and 10 miles, each with fascinating background reading. There are clear, easy-to-follow route descriptions and full colour detailed sketch maps for every walk. Each walk chapter is prefaced by a practical information panel and then a section with interesting information on what to look out for during the walk. Details of places to eat and drink are provided, including guidance for dog owners on where to walk and dog-friendly establishments.

The walk locations are as follows:
Abbotsbury - 7 or 9 miles
Ashmore - 5.75 miles
Badbury Rings - 7.5 miles
Cerne Abbas - 5.5 or 11.25 miles
Chettle - 6 miles
Clouds Hill - 6 miles
Compton Abbas - 4.5 miles
Corfe Castle - 5 or 9 miles
Cranborne Chase - 4 miles
Fiddleford - 5.25 miles
Furzebrook - 3.5 miles
Gussage St Michael - 5.25 miles
Hambledon Hill - 4.5 miles
Hammoon - 4.25 miles
Hengistbury Head - 3.25 miles
Higher Brockhampton - 5 miles
Higher Melcombe - 5 miles
Hod Hill - 7.5 miles
Horton - 7.5 or 11 miles
Ibberton - 4.25 miles
Kimmeridge - 7.5 miles
Lulworth - 4.25 or 6.75 miles
Lyme Regis - 4 miles
Marnhull - 4 or 7.5 miles
Melbury Osmond - 6 miles
Milton Abbas - 5 or 6.5 miles
Morcombelake - 6.5 miles
Osmington - 4 miles
Pentridge - 3.5 miles
Portland - 3.5 miles
Purse Caundle - 5 miles
Seatown - 4 miles
Shaftesbury - 3 miles
Sherborne - 6.5 miles
Studland - 7 miles
Swanage - 4.25 miles
Tarrant Gunville - 5 miles
The Fleet - 6 miles
Thorncombe - 5 miles
Tolpuddle - 4.5 miles
Turnworth - 4.5 miles
Wimborne - 4 miles
Winyard's Gap - 3.25 miles

ISBN 9780749581183 Pages 176 (2019) 118mm x 218mm