Short Walks in Dorset

Short Walks in Dorset
Collins Maps

Discover Dorset like never before with Ramblers Short Walks in Dorset.This practical e-guidebook contains 20 short walks in Dorset, all of which are 5 miles or under, and are ideal for families and individuals young and old looking for an afternoon stroll.The southern English county of Dorset contains stunning coastal scenery and beautiful rural countryside waiting to be explored. The area is famous for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, which features landforms such as the sublime Lulworth Cove, the impressive shingles of Chesil Beach, and the great natural arch of Durdle Door.This guide, produced in co-operation with the Ramblers and featuring Ordnance Survey mapping, is the perfect way to get out and enjoy the stunning scenery.This compact little guide contains walks, all of which are 5 miles or under, which are ideal for an afternoon stroll.INCLUDES:• 20 easy to follow walks which can be completed in 3 hours and under.• Each walk has a detailed Ordnance Survey map with the route clearly marked plus a detailed description of the route.• The walks have been chosen with issues like parking and refreshments in mind to make life easy for families.• There are interesting facts about the things you'll see along the route.• All the books include general information on walking and also the general area covered by the guide.• Packed with colour photographs of scenes you will see along the walk.

Copyright (#ulink_47b33933-8457-5d26-80e8-d22b3947e747)

Published by Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Westerhill Road Bishopbriggs Glasgow G64 2QT

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First edition 2011

Second edition 2015

Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

Original text © David Perrott and Laurence Main

Collins ® is a registered trademark of

HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Mapping on the inner front cover and all

walking planning maps generated from

Collins Bartholomew digital databases

This product uses map data licensed from Ordnance Survey

© Crown copyright and database rights (2015)

Ordnance Survey (100018598)

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

The contents of this publication are believed correct at the time of printing. Nevertheless, the publisher can accept no responsibility for errors or omissions, changes in the detail given, or for any expense or loss thereby caused.

email: roadcheck@harpercollins.co.uk (mailto:roadcheck@harpercollins.co.uk)

Follow us @collinsmaps (http://twitter.com/collinsmaps)

Ebook Edition © March 2015 ISBN: 9780008102067

Version: 2015-04-28

Contents

Cover (#u99eaa3d4-767a-57ab-a66b-c778b38e0204)

Title Page (#u1f4778e3-660c-5bce-8942-671eb0b00061)

Copyright (#ulink_079e8968-2007-53ab-8ae0-45ff1eaa17c5)

Short Walk locations (#ulink_1bf35b59-8db5-52c4-834c-e9e310f11b40)

Introduction (#ueb022488-0f42-57c0-8c03-21982dd55d5a)

How to use this book (#litres_trial_promo)

Short walks

Photo credits (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

(#ulink_01520788-b622-5991-a163-37f4a99ea99b)

walk 1, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 2, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 3, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 4, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 5, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 6, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 7, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 8, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 9, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 10, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 11, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 12, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 13, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 14, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 15, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 16, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 17, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 18, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 19, (#litres_trial_promo)walk 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#ulink_d118ef7f-9395-519b-a743-368cc28c583a)

Walking in Dorset

Dorset offers an amazing variety of unspoilt scenery and many wonderful opportunities for walking. There are no mountains but there are high places with magnificent views. The county is rich in geology and wildlife.

The gentle, undulating countryside around Blackmoor Vale and the River Stour contrasts vividly with the heathland of mid-Dorset and the outstanding natural beauty of the rugged coastline. Rolling chalk hills with ridge-top footpaths provide splendid walking; so does the Dorset Coast Path with its huge cliffs and interesting features such as Golden Cap, Durdle Door and Chesil Beach. The coast is the most popular area for visitors so venture inland if you seek remote and quiet places.

The county has a fascinating history too, dominated by the remains of prehistory. Hillforts, tumuli, earthworks and other ancient monuments are scattered across the countryside. There are also many delightful villages and country towns which are well worth visiting.

Dorset is linked inextricably with Thomas Hardy, the poet and novelist, who was born in Higher Bockhampton in 1840 and lived most of his life in the county. Hardy adopted the name of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex to give territorial definition to the world his characters inhabited and to unite his series of novels. Hardy’s Wessex was an evocation of the Dorset landscape he knew so well, ‘partly real, partly dream-country’. Lovers of Hardy’s novels and poems come here from all over the world, and an awareness of his work will add immensely to the appreciation of this area, whilst enabling the walker, travelling in a way thoroughly recommended by Hardy, to really get to know ‘remarkably well’ this ‘little bit of the world’.

Walking is a pastime which can fulfil the needs of everyone. You can adapt it to suit your own preferences and it is one of the healthiest of activities. This guide is for those who just want to walk a few miles. It really doesn’t take long to find yourself in some lovely countryside. All the walks are five miles or less so should easily be completed in under three hours. Walking can be anything from an individual pastime to a family stroll, or maybe a group of friends enjoying the fresh air and open spaces of our countryside. There is no need for walking to be competitive and, to get the most from a walk, it shouldn’t be regarded simply as a means of covering a given distance in the shortest possible time.

What is Dorset ?

Dorset is a predominately rural county in southwest England bounded by Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Bournemouth, Poole and the English Channel. It has many small villages but few large urban or industrial areas and no motorways. The county town is Dorchester which is adjoined by the new urban development of Poundbury designed by the Prince of Wales. Traditional market towns of note include Shaftesbury, Sturminster Newton, Blandford Forum and Wimborne Minster, whilst on the coast are the holiday resorts of Lyme Regis, Bridport, Weymouth and Swanage. The Stour, Frome and Piddle or Trent are among numerous small rivers which which cut green fertile valleys.

One unique area of Dorset is the Isle of Purbeck; although described as an island it is in reality a peninsular of around 60 square miles (155sq.km) with water on three sides, the English Channel, the River Frome and Poole Harbour.

Dorset is noted for its agricultural and dairy produce and for Portland Stone, a white-grey limestone which has been used extensively as a building stone, notably in major public buildings in London such as Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s Cathedral. Stone has been quarried in the Isle of Portland and the Isle of Purbeck since the Middle Ages. Tourism is very important to the economy of Dorset and has developed due to the beautiful scenery and coastline, the proliferation of prehistoric remains and the connection with Thomas Hardy.

The county has a long history of human settlement. Cave dwellers lived in the area in the middle of the Ice Age, about half a million years ago, while agriculture has been dated back to 4000BC. By about 500BC present day Dorset was the territory of the Durotriges, who built impressive hillforts, such as that at Maiden Castle just outside Dorchester. They could not stop the Romans, however, who established their culture here for 400 years and founded the town of Dunrovia (Dorchester).

Geology

The varied Dorset landscape is due to its fascinating underlying geology. There are a number of large ridges of limestone which include a band of chalk which crosses the county from southwest to northeast including Cranborne Chase, the Dorset Downs and the Purbeck Hills. Between the limestone downland ridges are large, wide clay valleys with broad flood plains including the Blackmoor Vale (Stour Valley) and Frome Valley.