Length: 75km/47miles
Average time to complete: 4 days walking
This is a tailor-made trail which includes some of the best parts of the Wessex Ridgeway and the Jubilee Trail, and is an easy to moderate walk overall. It winds its way through the best of rural Dorset, through mature woodland, along open ridges, over Celtic and Roman hillforts and into a succession of quiet, rural English villages, all with their church and most with their pub.
Wildlife is abundant in the form of deer, rabbits, foxes, badgers, squirrels, pheasants, buzzards, kestrels, butterflies and many other fauna. And for lovers of trees, hedgerows and wild flowers this trail is ideal.
The trail starts at Win Green, above the former royal hunting grounds and poachers’ paradise of Cranborne Chase, meandering through lush open parkland to Tollard Royal, where King John used to have a hunting lodge. It then comes to the restored and magnificent Larmer Tree Gardens, created by the “father of modern archaeology”, General Augustus Pitt-Rivers, and re-opened to the public a few years ago.
Further on, you pass the attractive stone and thatch villages of Farnham, Chettle, Tarrant Gunville and Shroton, each with its own history and legends, before climbing up, in quick succession, the stunning iron-age hill forts of Hambledon Hill and Hod Hill, and descending into the charming village of Stourpaine.
The next highlight on the trail is Milton Abbey and the astonishing village of Milton Abbas, which was built by a lord to rehouse the inhabitants of a town that marred the view from his stately home. This is followed by more of the superb and timeless scenery of hidden Dorset, until you arrive in Cerne Abbas, a picture postcard village with its famous chalk giant. A gentle climb brings you back up to the Ridgeway for the final stretch into Stratton and the historic county town of Dorchester.
Use our interactive map to search for nearby accommodation for walkers (www.enjoyengland.com/book/accommodation/Gazetteer.aspx?Sec=accommodation&advsrch=1&Rad=3&TowPosCd=dorset&FcWkr=true&durat=1&room=1&adult=1&child=0&display=list)