This short walk explores the countryside to the SW of the pre-Roman town of Dorchester, but is sufficiently close that afterwards we can (optionally) continue into town to see some of the interesting things there – more on those later.
We’ll start from the car park at SY668889 and head down to Martinstown (or Winterbourne St Martin, if you’re being posh) before climbing to the South Dorset ridgeway. In good weather, there will be views out to sea, inland across Dorset, and to Hardy’s monument to the west – that’s “kismet” Hardy, not “Some folk want their luck buttered” Hardy. Rather like parts of Salisbury, Avebury and our Berkshire ridgeway, this is an ancient landscape with tumuli and barrows scattered throughout. After a brief section of the SW coast path, we’ll head NE towards Maiden Castle – an iron age hill fort which contains the remains of a Roman temple. After a bit of exploration, we’ll drop back to the car park.
We’ll have a packed lunch on the walk, but there will be no pub stop. We will, however aim to head into Dorchester after the walk to take in some of the sights. Dorch (as it’s known locally) has pre-Roman features but was settled by the Romans: the remains of some of its walls and a villa can be found in the town. There is also Maumbury Rings – a pre-Roman amphitheatre, several museums, pubs and a fantastic cheese shop. Dorchester was the town on which Hardy’s Casterbridge was based (that’s “Some folk want their luck buttered” Hardy, not “kismet” Hardy).
Sat Nav: DT2 9JF (nearest) or 50.6988 -2.4714
Grid Ref: SY668889