Walking Tours in united-kingdom

Dorset - Wessex Trails

*  Walking the Coast and Hills of Dorset

*  Historic Town of Dorchester

*  Natural Wonders of Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove

The richly varied landscape and historical treasures of Dorset have inspired Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, who was born near Dorchester, which he called "Casterbridge", and more recently John Fowles - indeed his "French Lieutenant’s Woman" was filmed in Lyme Regis where we start our walk. You can’t walk far without encountering places immortalised by Hardy in his Wessex novels and "Far from the Madding Crowd" is still an appropriate description of the many rural villages which lie peacefully unspoilt in Dorset’s hidden valleys and rolling hills.

From Lyme Regis we follow the coast as it stretches eastwards, first to Charmouth, an area famous for its fossil-encrusted cliffs, and then to the l90m headland of orange sandstone known as the Golden Gap - highest point on the south coast of England. We turn inland to discover a wealth of historic and prehistoric sites; the British hill fort of Maiden Castle, sacked by the Romans in AD70, the Roman walls and historic town centre of Dorchester; and the medieval tithe barn of Abbotsbury, still used as a storehouse for reeds cut from the nearby lagoon. Abbotsbury is also famous for its "swannery", a nature reserve for wild swans founded in medieval times.

On day 6 you can walk from Dorchester past Hardy's birth place on the edge of Egdon Heath to the 18th century village of Milton Abbas with its parallel rows of white thatched cottages before returning by bus or taxi to Dorchester. We then return to the coast to walk past the natural arch of Durdle Door to Lulworth Cove, a sandy bay ringed with magnificent cliffs.

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