Dorset Adventures

Explore the deepest, darkest corners of Dorset by foot, wheel or hoof. Discover hidden ruins, beautiful views and ancient monuments. Visit places where mystery exists but only traces remain. Follow the footsteps of our ancestors and escape into this wonderful landscape.

Go where the people don’t go, make the world your own.

Search for a place, theme, activity or era to find a self-guided adventure for you.

For a quick guide see Dorset Inspiration

Check out the Ultimate Jurassic Coast Drive

Or discover The Stourton Caundle Stile Trail

November’s Walk of the Month

🌳🌤️ Long Bredy and it’s mysterious ancient landscape 🌤️🌳

‘The most comprehensive site on walking in Dorset’ – Folde Bookshop

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Hand drawn maps are provided for every area mentioned. Prints are also available. See Map page for the full selection.

Articles by Tess of the Vale also feature in Dorset Magazine

For any queries please feel free to contact me.

tessofthevale@gmail.com

Top 5 most popular walks of October

See Top 5 walks for more!

Walking Tour Operator of the Year 2025/6

Dorset Adventure Enterprise of the Year 2024

Dorset Adventure Enterprise of the Year 2023

by SME Best of British Getaways Awards

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Recent Posts

Dorset on Fire

by Tess of the Vale, posted in history, Map

Fire has swept through Dorset’s towns and villages, transformed heathland, destroyed historic houses and sometimes been deliberately used as a weapon or a tool. Its effects remain written across the county, in Georgian streets, roofless rooms, scorched stone and the stories passed between generations. What happened in the aftermath reveals just as much about Dorset. … Continue reading Dorset on Fire

Ackling Dyke

by Tess of the Vale, posted in history, Map, Walking

Slightly overshadowed by the more famous Watling Street and Fosse Way, Ackling Dyke is Dorset’s most prominent Roman Road. Running for around 22 miles (35 km) from Old Sarum (Sorviodunum) to Badbury Rings, this spectacular Roman road survives in places as a substantial raised agger, still clearly visible in the landscape. But Ackling Dyke was … Continue reading Ackling Dyke

Dorset Witches

by Tess of the Vale, posted in history, Seasonal, Walking

Across England from the 15th to the 18th century, fear of female power shaped a culture in which women were relentlessly pushed into the shadows, their knowledge and independence recast as danger. By the time King James published ‘Daemonologie’ in 1597, witchcraft panic had become a widespread phenomenon. The typical victim of an English witch … Continue reading Dorset Witches

Dole’s Ash

by Tess of the Vale, posted in Walking

Explore a landscape shaped by thousands of years of human activity, from Bronze Age burial mounds and great prehistoric cross-dykes to Romano-British fields and a lost medieval settlement. Skirt Dole’s Ash, Thomas Hardy’s inspiration for Flintcomb-Ash in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, before climbing the ancient ridges surrounding secluded Lyscombe Bottom and returning across the open … Continue reading Dole’s Ash

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