Soak up the scenery as you walk with retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade.

Start by visiting the church. If you go there on a Monday morning you’ll find it full of friendly people enjoying coffee, cake and chat. I recommend the cheese scones! Then walk a short distance south along the road to join a road on your left, leading steeply uphill to the north east. At the top it becomes a bridleway and you can enjoy the first of many wide views you’ll see during your walk.

After about a mile you reach the parish boundary and a road that takes you north alongside Broadley Wood. Much of the walk follows the parish boundary so keep an eye out for ancient boundary markers such as banks and ditches. At a T-junction at Normandy Lodge, turn right, north east, and in a quarter of a mile, at a bend in the road, join a bridleway on your left that takes you north west then bends to the south west. This section can be rather muddy so tuck your trousers in your socks.

At the bottom of the slope there’s a meeting of ways. Take the bridleway to the left that takes you along the edge of the forest at first uphill and then down to meet the road at Hedge End. Turn right and head northwards up the road for half a mile until you find a bridleway on your left, heading west. Join it and after half a mile, not far past a large barn, join another bridleway heading south, uphill, along a farm track. At the hill top it turns right, south west for a quarter of a mile then (beware as there’s no sign!) left, down a steep hill and up again past a wood.

That was the last of the hills. Soon you come to a road, which you cross to join the bridleway leading along the boundary with Winterborne Houghton, downhill for nearly a mile. When almost at the road, turn left along a footpath that parallels it for nearly a mile back to the village, near the pub. By the time you get back to your car you will have walked about 8 miles.