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
Explore by wheel, hoof or foot the chalk hills and river valleys of central Dorset. Scattered with earthworks and Roman remains, it merges with modern day settlement, woodland and water. Discover the church with an ancient canonical sundial carved into its wall and pass the haunted country house that was inspiration for Thomas Hardy’s ‘Far … Continue reading Cheselbourne
Circle the steep horseshoe bowl of Lyscombe Bottom. Explore the surrounding ancient landscape, filled with ancient earthworks, Iron Age hillforts and medieval trackways to find the remains of a lost, little village. Clamber the ruins in the valley, follow the river upstream and scale the slopes to the views, all in the central heart of … Continue reading Lyscombe Bottom
