Dewlish and Cheselbourne

All Saints church, Dewlish

Out for a Dorset walk after a long gap and we chose this one from our archive of walks published in Dorset magazine (March 2012). The walk begins at All Saints church in Dewlish and we set out to the accompaniment of blue sky and sunshine. The church is a typical mixture: Norman doorways, an early 14th century tower and a Victorian south aisle (TH Wyatt, 1872).

We walked down through the village, past the incongruous sight of a palm tree in a field, set off by an interesting sky.

We climbed a track up to chalk downlands with wide open spaces all around and views to the north west over Whitelands Downs.

The downland path gave way to an ancient tunnel-like track which led to Gallows Corner - a five-way path junction in the middle of nowhere.

I thought it seemed familiar and searching the blog reveals that we were here a year ago on a walk from nearby Milton Abbas.

There now came a long and increasingly muddy descent into the valley and across the dramatically named Devil's Brook - a brook nonetheless. Naturally, we then climbed the other side of the valley and had a nice view back across.

A series of fields brought us down to Cheselbourne, with its beautifully positioned Early English and Perpendicular church.

Then it was along more field paths back to Dewlish for a late lunch in the The Oak.

Distance: 5.5 miles.

Map: Explorer 117 (Cerne Abbas and Bere Regis).

Conditions: sunny, becoming increasingly cloudy; wet and muddy underfoot in many places.

Rating: three stars. A good work out, but our long distance walks mainly on tracks have left us less tolerant of muddy, uneven field paths.