Outdoors

A husband, St Catherine A handsome one, St Catherine A rich one, St Catherine A nice one, St Catherine And soon, St Catherine

(Traditional prayer used at St Catherine’s Chapel by women in search of a husband)

On Foot ABBOTSBURY, SWANNERY AND ST CATHERINE’S CHAPEL Emma Tabor & Paul Newman

Distance: 4 1/4 miles Time: Approx. 2 1/2 hours Parking: Rodden Row (fees apply) Walk Features: Good views of the Fleet and Western end of Chesil Beach, the Swannery and St Catherine’s Chapel Refreshments: The Ilchester Arms, Abbotsbury

Each month we devise a walk for you to try with the family (including four-legged members) and point out a few interesting things along the way, be it flora, fauna, architecture, history, the unusual, and sometimes the unfamiliar. This month we take you on an invigorating circular walk around Abbotsbury and some of its surrounding hills, with views over the Swannery, home to the world’s only managed colony of nesting mute swans. The walk also allows a detour to the western end of Chesil Beach before returning via a short climb to visit St Catherine’s Chapel. >

Directions

1 Start – Grid Ref: SY578851, the car park at

Rodden Row. It is well worth visiting the Tithe

Barn and Priory remains which are a short walk from the car park, either at the beginning or end of your walk. 2 Turn right out of the car park onto the B3157 and head past the Swan Inn. Cross over the road then walk along a pavement in front of a row of cottages. When this runs out, you will need to cross back over the road and follow it for 300 metres, heading towards, and then past, some green cottages. This short section of road can, at times, be busy so please take care.

After the cottages, look for a gateway on the right, just after a barn. Head down the track, which goes slightly right, then aim for the grove of trees on the hill ahead. Cross a brook, go through a gate and follow the footpath sign (not the bridleway to the left). Go to the right of the hedge, up the hill towards the copse. 3 Follow the copse around to the right and you will come across a stile. You can cross this to continue uphill through the copse and emerge further up the field or go around the edge of the copse via a metal gate. Please be aware that when this walk was written, the right of way here was not clearly marked. Once you reach the other side of the copse, walk up to the brow of the hill, with a drystone wall on your left.

Look back at this point to see fine views of St

Catherine’s Chapel. From the brow, drop down to meet a gateway and stile in the corner of the field. Go over the stile and turn right; you will then be on the South West Coast Path.

Follow the path towards the Chapel with fine views over the Swannery, Chesil Beach and the

Fleet. Look out for the Decoy pond behind the Swannery. The Fleet, the name given to the lagoon, was used to test a prototype of Barnes

Wallis’s Bouncing Bomb. 4 Walk along the ridge to reach a stile and then begin a steep and meandering descent through grassed-over quarry workings. This twists at the bottom to meet the corner of a drystone wall. As the wall turns away to the left, there is a stone stepped stile. Cross this into a field, turn right and keep the hedge and wall on your right to head downhill to a signpost by 5

6 a bend in the road. Turn right onto the road, past some farm buildings and then slightly uphill to the Swannery car park. (Please note that if you want to visit the Swannery it opens mid-March). Bear left to pass the entrance to the Swannery then head up a private road and look for a signpost for the Coastal Path and Tropical Gardens. Turn left to go through some trees, over a brook and stile, emerging into a field. Turn left and follow the footpath around the bottom of the hill (do not take the footpath straight ahead of you). The route now skirts the edge of the Swannery grounds. The path reaches a drystone wall; go over a stile into the next field and continue around the base of the hill, keeping the Fleet to your left. Here you can look across to the reed beds surrounding the Swannery and you will also notice ‘dragon’s teeth’, concrete tank trap defences from WWII, at the end of Chesil Beach. Look out for terns here in the summer. Continue along the footpath to reach a stile beneath another hill lined with Strip Lynchets, ancient field systems. Go over this to meet a path by a brook. You have the option to turn left and take a detour to Chesil Beach here. If not taken, turn right and follow the path which continues to lead around Chapel Hill with signs back towards Abbotsbury. After a few yards the path becomes a track with red bricks embedded in its surface. Keep on this track and, as it curves around Chapel Hill, beneath trees, you will meet a gate made from blue girders and a signpost directing you right towards the village. Take this direction and follow a tree-lined track. After 1/3 mile, just past a farm building on your right, go through a kissing-gate to climb towards St Catherines’ Chapel. There are good views from here over Abbotsbury village, the Tithe Barn and Abbey remains as well as surrounding hills. Go back down to the kissing-gate and pick up the track which will take you back to the B3157. Turn right and follow this through the village centre, back to the car park.