We've produced seven downloadable walks to help you get out and enjoy the Wessex countryside.
Click on the links to download directions and a map.
Dorset
Old Harry Rocks and the Purbeck coast
Old Harry Rocks is one of the most famous landmarks on the south coast. This walk starts at the beach at Studland and follows the Jurassic Coastline to the tip of the impressive chalk cliffs of Old Harry Rocks before returning to Studland through chalk grasslands over Ballard Down. A great circular walk.
Walking the Jurassic Coast
The Golden Cap Estate is part of England’s first natural World Heritage Site, the Jurassic Coastline. The Stonebarrow Hill to Golden Cap walk offers stunning views of the landscape and coast. The autumn sunlight on the Golden Cap’s rocky cliffs changes their colour to a beautiful rusty-gold hue, hence its name.
The area is also home to much wildlife that includes roe deer, foxes, mining bees and many kinds of rare beetles. The patchwork of hedges is a traditional feature of the landscape and invaluable to the wildlife.
Gloucestershire
Cotswold woodlands and villages
The picturesque Sherborne Park Estate nestles in the Cotswold countryside. Four thousand acres of rolling countryside and the village of Sherborne next to the river Windrush offer lovely walking. A signed walk takes you through a woodland sculpture trail, farmland, woods and down to the village of Sherborne. It is a fun walk for people of all ages.
Woodchester Park
Set in a Gloucestershire valley near Stroud, Woodchester Park includes the remains of an 18th and 19th-century landscape park, a chain of five lakes and fine woodland.
A walk along the orange trail to the Boathouse gives an overview of this beautiful park, passing through the pastureland and colourful woodland to the flight of five man-made lakes, which are being restored. Woodchester Park is home to much wildlife including buzzards, owls, woodpeckers, coots, moorhens, mallard and mandarin ducks.
Somerset
Villages and coastline on Exmoor
This section of dramatic West Somerset coastline offers a walk through a new salt water coastal habitat on our Holnicote Estate, as well as views of spectacular parts of the Exmoor scenery. The walk also takes in the pretty village of Porlock.
Wiltshire
Walking in the Stonehenge Historic Landscape
This walk is a must if you enjoy wide open spaces and ‘big skies’. A circular route takes in the beauty of the Wiltshire downland as well as passing many prehistoric monuments such as the Cursus Barrow site and the King Barrows. Stonehenge Monument is visible in the distance throughout the walk.
Exploring the wider estate at Stourhead
The garden at Stourhead is one of the National Trust’s most visited sites, but this walk takes you beyond the garden into the surrounding countryside of the wider estate. You'll walk through mature woodlands, visit an Iron Age hill fort and pass by medieval ponds. The autumn shades along this route should not be missed.
As well as offering beautiful scenery, this is a walk of historic interest. Look out for the rare sheep breeds at Park Hill camp, an Iron Age hill-fort. King Alfred's Tower, where King Alfred the Great is thought to have rallied his troops, can be seen over the brow of the hill.
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