Gorgeous, easy-going circular walk, almost no hills at all, but a LOT of the famous Dorset hedges – be ready for lots of wobbly stile scrambling!
This was a really lovely walk through the quiet, unvisited but footpath-strewn farmland at the heart of rural Dorset – outside the villages you won’t see a soul.
Parking is easy in the village hall car park in Pulham (handily placed opposite the Halsey Arms for a celebratory pint when you finish), and goes via Round Chimneys farm shop & cafe if you need a mid-way refreshments break!
You’ll need your phone out frequently – I checked the route field by field – but the footpaths are nearly all exactly where they should be. Watch out for electric fences – there were quite a few, and one was right inside a gate which we didn’t see until one of us was zapped. With a taut fence and no handle provided we had to drop and roll to cross it (and the same on the opposite side of the field).
There is more road work than we would usually opt for, but we saw just one car on the entire route – these are the quietest of empty back lanes in North Dorset!
Judging by the marsh grass, a lot of the fields looked like they would be marshy for a lot of the year: I’d suggest this as a dry spring/summer walk only unless you have really good footwear and don’t mind boggy ground. All bridges were intact and sturdy, and the nettle growth at this time of year inevitably required some beating work to reach a couple of stiles, but every time we approached a hedge or field corner thinking the footpath had vanished it magically appeared as we got closer – trust the map, look up and enjoy!
