A hillfort is a type of earthwork once used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. Hillforts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly at the start of the first millennium BC, some later used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually … Continue reading Dorset Hillforts
Terrain - Sandy and stony tracks. Can get very muddy and boggy if wet. Map – OL 15 Purbeck and South Dorset Start – There are a few car parks along Sugar Hill. Gore Heath also has its own car park. There are also a number of pull-ins scattered around the forest. Refreshments –The Silent … Continue reading Wareham Forest bike ride
Terrain - Track and road. Map - OS Explorer 117 Cerne Abbas and Bere Regis Start – Two official car parks and a few large laybys surround the forest. Refreshments – National Trust Café at Thomas Hardy’s Cottage Puddletown Forest sits in between the country town of Dorchester and the small village of Puddletown. Originally … Continue reading Puddletown Forest Bike ride
Eight villages line the valley, all gaining their name from the river. Once the location of an abbey, a monastery and the existence of a surviving medieval pack horse bridge, it suggests activity and life has been here for centuries. Going back even earlier in time, ancient earthworks sit abreast the hill tops and Roman … Continue reading The Tarrant Valley
This second part of the Wessex Ridgeway bike ride begins high on Okeford Hill with views stretching across both south and north Dorset. Travel along the ridge of Ibberton and Bulbarrow to reach the Iron Age Hillfort of Rawlsbury Camp. Cycle downhill into the first valley to rise again at the ancient junction of Dorsetshire … Continue reading The Wessex Ridgeway, part two. Okeford Hill to Alton Pancras.
The North Dorset Trailway follows the route of the former Somerset & Dorset railway through the Blackmore Vale, linking Sturminster Newton with Blandford (and on to Spetisbury). Today, the railway has gone, but the route remains as an easy way to explore the countryside, villages and historic landscapes of North Dorset. The North Dorset Trailway … Continue reading The North Dorset Trailway
The Blackmore Vale Cranborne Chase The Isle of Purbeck
Off the beaten track and away from the tourists, sits the wide and open valleys of the Blackmore Vale. Mainly famous for its role in literature it has been immortalised by both Thomas Hardy and William Barnes. The four smaller rivers of the Cale, the Caundle Brook, the Lyddon and the Devilish all meet the … Continue reading The Blackmore Vale
