The National Trust cares for and protects large areas of countryside throughout Wessex and ensures free open access to all of it. The management of this countryside ensures that nature conservation is a key concern.

In Gloucestershire, the Ebworth Estate, Sherborne Estate, Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons, the estate at Newark Park and Dyrham Park all offer access to wonderful Cotswold countryside. The Commons cover some 350 hectares and are home to some of the most wildlife-rich grassland in the UK, with 13 species of orchid recorded. On the Sherborne estate, restored water meadows and woodland sculpture trails offer a real variety of recreational walks.

In Wiltshire, the historic landscape at Stonehenge, with hundreds of burial mounds, and the processional routes to the Stones have been made more accessible through the Trust’s successful arable reversion scheme. At Dinton Woods and Figsbury Ring near Salisbury, access is encouraged and on the Wiltshire/Dorset borders, the chalk downlands of Fontmell and Melbury Downs are rich in flora and offer fantastic views.

In Dorset, the Trust owns large sections of the coastline. The Golden Cap estate, near Charmouth is part of the Jurassic Coast and boasts the highest cliff on the south coast. The Trust owns the majority of the Isle of Purbeck, famed for its golden beaches and heathlands, both of which are managed naturally to encourage biodiversity. The Trust also owns one of the few remaining red squirrel habitats on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour.

Somerset stretches all the way west to Exmoor, and it is here on the border with Devon that the Trust owns the Holnicote estate, the complete countryside experience with coastline, moors and ancient woodland. Closer to civilisation and Bristol’s Leigh Woods is a haven of nature conservation on the Avon gorge, while the Bath Skyline is being protected by the Trust from the spread of urban sprawl. The Bath Skyline Walk offers six miles of paths in countryside on the edge of the city.

Countryside highlights for visitors with disabilities:

• Burton Bradstock, Dorset - easy access from the car park down a gentle slope to the shingle beach.
• Studland, Dorset - summer boardwalk onto the beach.
• Stonebarrow Hill at Golden Cap, Dorset - has an adapted WC and marvellous views. Nearby Langdon Hill Wood has a circular forest route suitable for powered vehicles (access either via kissing-gates or gates with radar locks).
• North Hill and Webbers Post, Holnicote Estate, Somerset - two new easy access trails have been created both offering fine views over moorland, woodland and coast.
• Haresfield Beacon, Short Wood, Gloucestershire - access via a gate with radar padlock – superb views can be enjoyed from extensive grasslands.