Badbury Rings

 

 Badbury Rings

Back in Poole for a couple of days we headed north, past Wimborne, to start this walk at Badbury Rings, a large iron-age hill fort. It is located on the Kingston Lacy estate, which is owned by the National Trust.

You walk from the car park and make a clock-wise half circuit around the outside of the rings. There are three of them - presumably defensive earthworks for the settlement where the trees now are on the top of the hill. It is all much clearer from an aerial photo, for example this one taken when the site was excavated in 2004.

On the other side you head straight ahead on a track by woodland and then swing right to pass the handsome medieval farm house of Lodge Farm.

You soon reach the B 3082 Wimborne to Blandford Road. This is the famous avenue of beech trees, which must be wonderful in November, and is still extremely impressive even with no leaves.

The trees were planted in 1835 by the then owner of Kingston Lacy,William John Bankes. There were 731 of them: one for each day of the year on both sides of the road, plus one for leap year.

You now cross the road and follow a track along the perimeter of Kingston Lacy's wooded park, to turn right into Sheepbriar Drove, a classic wide, tree-lined drove. After a half a mile or so you turn right again into another track, where there are nice views back towards Badbury Rings.

This U-shaped section of the walk ends back at the B3082, where there is a further fine vista of beech trees and you walk alongside these for a while back to the Badbury Rings car park.

Distance: 4.5 miles.

Map: Explorer 118 (Shaftesbury and Cranbourne Chase).

From: Dorset magazine, December 2010.

Conditions: about 5 degrees C, hazy.

Rating: three and a half stars.