With retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade

WARNING: If you intend to do this walk when it’s been raining, wear wellies or well dubbinned boots and carry a stick as the Blackmore Vale clay soil is deep, squidgy and slippery!

Head for the church, where there are a few parking places close by. Visit the historic church first, while your footwear is still clean, then go back and join the bridleway opposite where you parked.

It heads SSE, passing a couple of ponds and goes uphill, crossing a field and entering a wood, turning right, S, for a short distance then entering another field where you turn left, SSE, skirting Prince’s Wood downhill, crossing a stream, then up again where the hill is dotted with lots of anthills.

There are some good views to be had as well as enjoying a very natural environment. Return to the churchyard and go through the gate on the north side to use the footpath crossing a small field to join a road where you turn right, NE, for 1⁄4 of a mile, turning right, ESE when the Tarmac runs out. Continue for 1⁄2 a mile to a junction of several ways. Turn left, N, skirting a copse on your right, crossing a meadow and continuing for a mile through the edge of a wood and crossing a couple of fields until you reach a road at Rhymehorn.

Turn left and follow the road W, curving SW for half a mile then, where the road turns sharply SE, you carry on SSW along a bridleway, Stonerush Drove, for a mile, skirting Admiral Digby’s Plantation, until you reach the road where you turn left, E, passing the village hall and phone box library and continuing down the hill to a junction where you veer right to your car.

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