Dor Feb 12 Walk1 Bonsley Wood and Stourpaine

By Sarah Gerc on January 23rd 2012

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Bonsley Wood and Stourpaine

Edward Griffiths embarks on a lovely walk through ancient woodland which also offers superb views over the Blackmore Vale and Cranborne Chase

This lovely walk offers lots of variety and fabulous views, over the Blackmore Vale and to Cranborne Chase, from Bonsley Common, which is part of the same scenic escarpment that includes Okeford Hill, Ibberton Hill and Bulbarrow. Part of Bonsley Wood is maintained by the Dorset Coppice Group whose members practice traditional crafts such as charcoal burning, making rustic furniture, hurdles, thatching spars, hay rakes and beanpoles, wooden bowls and walking sticks. Find out more about this talented group at their website dorsetcoppicegroup.org.uk  where you will also find details about courses they run and open days.

*Note – after very heavy rain the Stour may flood, so the Stourpaine footbridge may be surrounded by floodwater, in which case save the walk for another day.

The Walk

1 With your back to St Nicholas’ Church, turn right and walk back to the T-junction. Turn right downhill and take the first left turning. Opposite thatched cottages, take the left bridleway-signed track. Through the facing gate, follow the left fence through the paddock. Through the next bridleway-gate, keep following the field’s left fence. Up the bank, go through the first Jubilee Trail gate and follow the right fence above the long valley floor. Through the end bridleway 1½ gates, follow the left fence up through woodland. Through the end bridleway-gate, walk along the left edge of the valley floor, then bending slightly left up to the far corner bridleway-gate with superb views back over Durweston.

2 Onto the lane before the stone-and-brick Folly House, continue uphill and pass left and right cottages. Levelling out to the T-junction, turn right along the left wood. Through 1½ gates, continue on the track against the right hedge in the high field and into the Forestry Commission’s ancient Bonsley Wood. Pass Dorset Coppice Group’s Living Classroom on your right and keep to the right bridleway-arrowed track, through the barrier-gate at the first fork. Swinging right through Bonsley Wood, pass a right footpath, a right bridleway and another left fork.

3 Emerging in to the high field on Shillingstone Hill, pass a return-right fork bridleway and keep straight on, with superb views over the Blackmore Vale and Cranborne Chase, with Shaftesbury and Hambledon Hill ahead through the trees and Hod Hill low down right. Beginning to descend, stay on the track, passing a doubling-back left forestry track and facing Hambledon Hill’s Yew Wood. Now sunken and chalky, the track passes another doubling-back left forestry track as it bends slightly right and continues downhill.

4 Through a barrier-gate, carefully cross the A357 on the ‘Hump’ at Gains Cross into the lane opposite with Hod Hill ahead, a farm and cottages right. Down between hedges, arrive at Shillingstone Trailway junction. Turn right at the Cycleway 25 signpost for ‘Stourpaine 1’ through barrier-posts. Follow the cinder-surfaced Trailway for ¾ mile, crossing the bridge, and continuing through lines of beech trees. Bending left off the old railway route, follow the lane to the ‘Stourpaine and White Horse Pub ¼’ sign at Hod Drive. Walk along ‘Havelins’ lane into the village, between some thatched and timber-framed cottages. At the crossing, turn left, passing more cottages and left Holy Trinity Church.

5 Go through the facing footpath-signed half-gate into the fenced path over extensive earthworks and down to the corner kissing-gate onto a hedged bridleway. Turn right down under the railway bridge to the footbridge over the River Stour. (*After days of heavy rain, this approach floods – in which case the escape route is up to the A350 Shaston Road, right to Durweston Bridge and back along the A357 but the traffic is heavy and the road is narrow.) Over the bridge, follow the fenced path, bending left, continuing over the sluice-gates and turning right to pass Durweston Mill. Between brick posts, walk along the track to the A357 and turn left. In 100 yards, turn right past the war memorial. Round the left bend, pass the bridleway where you started the walk, continue to the T-junction, turn right and left back to St Nicholas’ Church.

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