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Saturday, October 11, 2008, 08:00
7.5 miles, 3.5 hours walking use map OS Explorer Cerne Abbas and Bere Regis, 117, ref: 634 040
PARK: In the picnic and parking area on Hillfield Hill. This lies on the road between Minterne Magna and Eversholt. It has a narrow entrance. If it's is too tight for you, park in the layby a few yards on by the roadside.
THE 180ft-tall naked Cerne Abbas Giant on a Dorset hillside has been cleaned up and rechalked, as happens every seven years, so you will see him in his full glory, brandishing a club.
This moderate circle through Dorset downland starts high on Hillfield Hill, offers some splendid views and then drops gently down to the Cerne valley and along to Cerne Abbas. There is a picnic area looking over to the giant on the edge of Cerne Abbas.
See the giant and also explore the village – the old abbey, and enjoy the cottages, a few small shops, tea shops and three historic pubs – before circling back, with a climb up to the Wessex Ridgeway. Wear good walking shoes or boots. Some of the Ridgeway is rutted and could be muddy.
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START
From the car park, turn left along the road, past the alternative parking lay-by. Cross the road and continue on for a few more yards.
1. GORE HILL
Turn right at the marker post. Follow the green swathe straight across Gore Hill heading for a copse of trees. You are at 265m above sea level. Already you have the high, open feeling and airy views which epitomise the Dorset downland.
2. COPSE
Reach the copse of trees and a signpost. Turn left to Up Cerne and follow this track along and then downhill all the way into valley, with some glorious views over the woods and rolling fields.
3. T-JUNCTION
Reach a T-junction with a track near the foot and turn right, still in the Up Cerne direction. Ignore a side turning and continue on. You start to approach magnificent Up Cerne Manor House ahead. Before you get there, reach another signpost and turn right up a field towards Cerne Abbas (one mile). Go up the field, cut across the corner and continue on to a lane.
4. LANE
Continue straight across the lane. Reach a road and maintain direction. You start now to see the great giant on the hillside on the other side of the valley. Shortly, reach the main road. Continue along here for a few minutes to reach a car park and the giant's viewing area.
5. GIANT VIEW
The Cerne Abbas Giant is Britain's largest hill figure. His origin is still a mystery. Some say he is more than 1,500 years old. Others take him to be a 17th-century cartoon of Oliver Cromwell!
Turn left down the side road in the direction of the village and shortly after, turn left at a picnic area – great for viewing the giant while you have lunch. Carry on down, past the village hall and on to an old stone and flint bridge, Kettle Bridge, built to carry cart traffic to and from an old barn.
Ignore the path to the village – you return that way. Continue on over the bridge and on to what was the old barn, but is now a private house. Turn left on the marked path through a gate and shortly turn right towards the foot of the hill. Reach a flight of steps which lead up to the path to take you up the side of the giant, if you wish.
But for our circle, turn right before the steps, over a stile on a path signed to the village. Bear right in the field heading towards the church. Go under an arch and through the churchyard. Reach a sign about the history of St Augustine's Well.
Go back to the entrance and continue on the path towards the village, passing the village pond and going ahead along a street of beautiful old cottages, past the church.
6. CERNE ABBAS
The village grew up around the great Benedictine abbey, founded AD987, which dominated the area for 500 years before it fell victim to Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, when much of it was destroyed. In the centuries after the dissolution, the village thrived as a small market town.
Turn right in the heart of the village where you will pass three historic pubs and other refreshment opportunities. It is said Cerne Abbas once had 14 public houses, serving visitors and a population of about 1,500.
Go along here and take the first road right, signed back to the car park and picnic area. Almost immediately turn right again into Mill Lane, which is marked as a footpath. Follow the beautiful clear River Cerne along, keeping it on your right all the way until you get back to Kettle Bridge.
Turn left, retracing your steps back to the picnic area and junction with the lane. Turn right a couple of yards on the lane and then go left up steps on the marked footpath to Acreman Street. Follow the right hedge in the field and leave in the corner, coming on to the main road. Cross with care and take the footpath opposite up steps to Wean Common Hill.
7. FIELD
Cross the field, parallel with the hedge on your left (about 50 yards on your left). If the field is full of crops, go round the left edge. Reach another signpost and go into the next field. Turn right along the edge, climbing gently.
Go over a stile in the corner on to a track at the foot of the hill and turn left, going shortly over another two stiles. The track may be muddy along here, so if it is too bad, climb up a little on to the hill on your right and just walk along parallel, then drop down at the end. Continue all the way to a stile ahead, marked with a footpath arrow.
Go through the next field and over another stile. Then follow the arrow diagonally right up the field. Aim for a stile in the first far corner on the right by woodland (not the one at the very end of the field). It's signed to Cerne Park.
8. WOODS
Cross the stile into the wood and follow the track, climbing quite steeply – the only steep hill of this circle. Ignore the path on the way that goes up left. Leave the wood at the top and turn right on Syding Drove. Climb up a small brow to the wood corner – a short distance – and turn left across the field following the footpath signpost. On the far side, cross over on to the Wessex Ridgeway.
9. RIDGEWAY
Turn right. You follow this for almost two miles along the hill to the road, with great views over to the left. Some of it may be wet and muddy and deeply ridged due to vehicles and bikes, so it is not always the easiest walking.
Ignore a crossing footpath. The Ridgeway improves when it joins a hard farm track. Just continue on. Another track joins. Further on there is a footpath right, which would take you back to the car park more quickly than my route.
However, it is a narrow path and there are no views. But if you want, you can turn right, shortly turn left and follow the path all the way to the road. Turn right and the car park is a short way along.
For the route I took, which is dry and open and gives good views, just follow the main track to the road.
10. ROAD
Turn right for about seven minutes, ignoring a side lane, and reach the parking area.
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