On Foot

On Foot MAPPERTON ESTATE LOOP

Emma Tabor and Paul Newman

Distance: 4½miles Time: Approx. 2½ hours Park: Car park in Mapperton, donation box Walk Features: This corner of West Dorset feels particularly secluded with a series of gullies, hillocks and hidden valleys which host a diverse mix of woodland. The walk has a couple of short, steep sections with a longer, gentler climb back to the start. There is also a fine view of Mapperton House towards the very end. NB: Please proceed with caution on the section above Burcombe Wood as it can be tricky and the footpath along it is not clearly marked. Refreshments: Coach House Café, Mapperton House

Each month we devise a walk for you to try with your family and friends (including four-legged members) pointing out a few interesting things along the way, be it flora, fauna, architecture, history, the unusual and sometimes the unfamiliar. For March, we walk a loop from Mapperton, descending into some of the surrounding hidden valleys near Mapperton estate. It’s a walk with many twists and turns, and an enigmatic-looking hilltop enclosure at its centre. There are some lovely views near the start of the walk across Hooke Park and a patchwork of fields towards the sea before delving into a network of holloways, ford crossings and small ravines. >

Directions Start: SY 503 998. Look for the car park sign in Mapperton. 1 Turn left out of the car park onto the road and walk up past houses then, after 250 yards, bear off to the right up a road signed as a dead end. Keep going uphill, first right then left, and soon there are good views opening out to your right across a patchwork of fields towards Hooke Park and the sea. This is a good place to see passing raptors including buzzard, peregrine falcon and kestrel.

At the top, bear right and follow the track in front of a house, Coltleigh Hill. Walk for another 300 yards until you reach a bridleway sign to turn right, just before reaching another house. 2 The track heads downhill now, towards woods.

Ahead is a good view over a hilltop enclosure and there are some lovely solitary oaks spread across nearby fields. As the track reaches the bottom, veer left onto the Jubilee Trail, ignoring the trail through a gate to the right. The track now passes through some woodland with a pond to your right and soon fords a stream. Climb away from the ford as the stream drops away into a gully to your left. The track then bears slightly right to emerge into a field though a large metal gate. Follow the Jubilee Trail across the field, keeping the hedge on your left.

After a few yards, the hedge turns further left but the footpath goes across the field, diverging slightly right from the hedge (if visible, aim for the tower on North Poorton church). The field soon ends abruptly at the top of a small valley, so turn sharp left and descend through a small cutting and then right, down towards a stream. 3 The path fords the bed of the stream, with a house on your left. Go through another metal gate, pass the front of the house, bearing left and onto a track which leads uphill to North

Poorton. Keep on the track until you reach the intersection of four paths marked by a sign to the left. At this sign, turn right through a large metal gate into a field (turning left and heading up the

Holloway takes to you on a larger figure-of-eight circuit around Hooke Park). Walk slight right across the middle of the field towards the hedge, keeping the farm buildings over to your left. As you near the hedge you will see a gate in the top right-hand corner of the field. Go through the gate, ignoring the footpath sign to the right, into another field. Head straight across this field and, as you cross it, you will see a gate in the far hedge.

Go through this gate (which has a particularly

fine closing device) into a field now above the other side of the valley you passed earlier. Walk ahead but start to go downhill; keep a small hillock crowned with a burial mound to your left and a spring and water trough to your right.

Pass the spring and trough, now with the hillock above you, keeping ahead and towards the corner of the field with a metal gate. 4 Go through the gate to emerge onto a sunken footpath, along a wooded valley with a fence and fields above and to the left. You will soon meet a tricky section where a small landslide has cut through the path. Carefully climb down and back up to rejoin the path along the fence. Keep the fence on your left; this is a lovely section, with the stream meandering along below you through the woods to the right. After ⅓ mile look for a metal gate to your left at a slight angle to the path. (At the time of writing this gate was covered and partly blocked by a fallen tree). Make your way over the gate into the field, now keeping the fence on your right and follow the footpath around the outer edge of the wood. The path goes gently right and into a slightly sunken track and then left on a bend; keep the fields to your left and the wood on your right.

You will soon meet a wooden five-bar gate; go

through this and descend into a small holloway. 5 At the bottom, as the holloway emerges into a field, turn sharp right and back on yourself, through a metal gate with clear footpath signs.

Walk down this woodland track towards the stream, crossing at another ford and through a gateway, keeping on the track with the stream now on your left. It can be quite muddy along here.

Look out for a ruined building on your right and a beautiful little waterfall on your left. Go through another gateway, keeping on the Jubilee Trail, leaving the woodland behind to your left and stay on the track as it winds up out of the valley. 6 Eventually, as you near the top of the valley, the track reaches a metal gate with a cottage on your left. Keep straight ahead on the track and, where this meets the drive coming from Mapperton

House, cross the drive and go through a gate into a field. Go straight across this field, heading to the left of buildings and looking for a gate and bridleway sign in the far hedge. There is a lovely prospect of the front of Mapperton House and surrounding buildings from here. At the gate, turn right onto the road and back to the car park.