The Blackmore vale path is a circular 75 mile path in Dorset that I discovered when looking for 4 day walks just after the covid-19 lockdown. We pushed the pace on this and ended up doing most of it in three days with some shortcuts (avoiding Blandford, Yeovil and Dorchester) but its probably a more pleasant 5-6 day walk.
It's circular nature meant not having to infect or be infected by others on public transport and we simply drove to one of the villages en route. I suspect the official starting point is Blandford.
75 mile circular route around Dorset
I couldn't find very much information at all about this route before starting, just a GPX file and a route map from the long distance walking association website. I have the knowledge that a pamphlet was once produced but doesn't seem to be in print.
Reasons to do the walk
- being circular makes for easy logistics
- nice traverse of inland Dorset with views over hills, vales and pretty villages
Reasons to pick another walk
- A fair bit of road walking from Sturminster Newton to Sherborne
-It uses lesser frequented paths and this can be quite obvious at times from the volume of nettle stings endured and amount of bushwhacking required.
-Sometimes deviating from the official path makes for a nicer route.
Logistics
The main towns on route with train stations and decent bus links are Dorchester, Yeovil, Sherborne and Blandford so these would make for the best starting points.
This could easily be done walking from one B&B to the next. There are a few campsites on en route but it might be a little trickier to camp in official sites each night, but there are a fair few woodlands and farmers fields that could accommodate a wild camper if you set up late, packed up early and most importantly leave no trace. There are enough towns on route to pick up food in local shops near daily.
Maps - we used the OS Maps app on our phone and find it excellent (you can upload the GPX file to the app and follow it) but obviously the OS paper maps are also great and a handy back up.
Possible Itinerary (6 days) - approx distances in miles
Blandford to Sturminster Newton 13
Sturminster Newton to Sherborne 15
Yeovil to Cerne Abbas 15
Cerne Abbas to Dorchester 10
Dorchester to Milton Abbas 15
Milton Abbas to Blandford 7
Skipping Blandford & Yeovil (5 days - 65 miles)
Dorchester to Milton Abbas 15 miles
Milton Abbas to Sturminster Newton 12 1/2 miles (skipping blandford)
Sturminster newton to Sherborne 15 miles
Sherborne to Cerne Abbas (skipping Yeovil , going through Bradford Abbas) - 18 miles
Cerne Abbas to Dorchester - 10 miles
Helpful planning distances (very rough distance from place to place)
Tolpuddle
Milton Abbas 6
Winterborne Stickland 3
Blandford 4
Okeford Fitzpaine 9
Sturminster Newton 4
Stalbridge 7
Sherborne 8
Yeovil 5 1/2
yetminster 5
Cerne Abbas 10
Dorchester 10
Tolpuddle 9
Below is a rough guide to our walk detailing some of the facilities in each town, we walked anti-clockwise
The main towns on route with train stations and decent bus links are Dorchester, Yeovil, Sherborne and Blandford so these would make for the best starting points.
This could easily be done walking from one B&B to the next. There are a few campsites on en route but it might be a little trickier to camp in official sites each night, but there are a fair few woodlands and farmers fields that could accommodate a wild camper if you set up late, packed up early and most importantly leave no trace. There are enough towns on route to pick up food in local shops near daily.
Maps - we used the OS Maps app on our phone and find it excellent (you can upload the GPX file to the app and follow it) but obviously the OS paper maps are also great and a handy back up.
Possible Itinerary (6 days) - approx distances in miles
Blandford to Sturminster Newton 13
Sturminster Newton to Sherborne 15
Yeovil to Cerne Abbas 15
Cerne Abbas to Dorchester 10
Dorchester to Milton Abbas 15
Milton Abbas to Blandford 7
Skipping Blandford & Yeovil (5 days - 65 miles)
Dorchester to Milton Abbas 15 miles
Milton Abbas to Sturminster Newton 12 1/2 miles (skipping blandford)
Sturminster newton to Sherborne 15 miles
Sherborne to Cerne Abbas (skipping Yeovil , going through Bradford Abbas) - 18 miles
Cerne Abbas to Dorchester - 10 miles
Helpful planning distances (very rough distance from place to place)
Tolpuddle
Milton Abbas 6
Winterborne Stickland 3
Blandford 4
Okeford Fitzpaine 9
Sturminster Newton 4
Stalbridge 7
Sherborne 8
Yeovil 5 1/2
yetminster 5
Cerne Abbas 10
Dorchester 10
Tolpuddle 9
Below is a rough guide to our walk detailing some of the facilities in each town, we walked anti-clockwise
Tolpuddle
Facilities
Facilities
- No formal accommodation but a few airbnbs
- No shop
- River if you need water and are happy to treat it
Some bushwhacking required after crossing the a35 then after about 3 miles you get to Dewlish. A small village, has a stream but no formal facilities, again airbnb could be an accommodation option if needed.
From here ascend a hill and you then descend into the idyllic Milton Abbas (6 miles from tolpuddle) where nearly every house is thatched and there must be a decree house owners sign to ensure their gardens are immaculate at all times before they are allowed to live there. Apparently it was one of the first planned settlements in England and it was designed by landscape gardener Capability Brown and arichitect William Brown in the 1770's.
It's a bit of an uphill slog through the village but the village cafe, shop, and pub might slow you down (unfortunately for us, all closed because of covid). The pub does accommodation when it's open and we saw a few signs for B&Bs. If looking for water there is a reservoir here but it's seems heavily guarded by fishermen.
It's a bit of an uphill slog through the village but the village cafe, shop, and pub might slow you down (unfortunately for us, all closed because of covid). The pub does accommodation when it's open and we saw a few signs for B&Bs. If looking for water there is a reservoir here but it's seems heavily guarded by fishermen.
After Milton abbas the Blackmore Vale path joins the jubilee trail for a while, making navigating less intensive. The trail through charity woods makes for good marching ground and one could make a discreet camp here.
You then come to Winterborne Stickland, (just over 3 miles from milton abbas) yet another cute Dorset village with a fine church and Manor house. Apparently borne means stream and said stream should only be present in winter, but we found that it was still flowing in July. This is no guarantee to find it again another summer, but it was still running was after a very dry spring. Winterborne Stickland has a pub - The Crown and there may be a B&B (westwood lodge but its website is currently down).
At Winterborne Stickland we deviated from the official route - as we didn't start in Blandford and had no need to go there. It's about 4 miles from winterborne stickland to Blanford and then 4 miles back to the route.
Therefore we left this village to the north on a pleasant rising plain with good views back to the village, still on the jubilee trail. Another set of woods, the field Grove and then you leave the jubilee trail to continue north. Through Bosley Common and then on to Okeford Hill. We hadn't noticed the gradual incline we'd tackled so the views from this hill were a glorious surprise.
We descended into Okeford Fitzpaine, (5 and a bit miles from Winterborne Stickland if skipping out Blandford) this village has a pub, the Royal Oak, a post office with little shop and a stream to fill up water bottles from, or as we found, helpful locals who may also oblige. There is also a campsite to the west of the village (camping & caravanning club - for which you need to be a member)
From Okeford Fitzpaine its nearly 4 miles to Sturminster Newton, initially climbing a gentle rise and then back down into the town. This is an old market town with a selection of shops, that recognises its connection with the Blackmore Vale. It's apparently been around since 1272 and there is a 15th century over the river that Thomas Hardy once wrote about. A lot of this walk is around where Hardy lived and wrote about. There are plentiful facilities here - a bakery, we can highly recommend the butcher come deli as well as pubs, a fish and chip shop, indian, pizza takeaway, co-op. The Swan Inn provides accommodation.
From Okeford Fitzpaine its nearly 4 miles to Sturminster Newton, initially climbing a gentle rise and then back down into the town. This is an old market town with a selection of shops, that recognises its connection with the Blackmore Vale. It's apparently been around since 1272 and there is a 15th century over the river that Thomas Hardy once wrote about. A lot of this walk is around where Hardy lived and wrote about. There are plentiful facilities here - a bakery, we can highly recommend the butcher come deli as well as pubs, a fish and chip shop, indian, pizza takeaway, co-op. The Swan Inn provides accommodation.
From Sturminster Newton we found it a boring slog on roads to Stalbridge, around 7 miles away, these were quiet but remained tiring on the feet and if we'd planned it better we'd have probably used OS maps to utilise more local footpaths. Stalbridge is a small place, but not too small to have its own flag (!), a nice church and some thatched houses. There is a post office selling a few supplies here but little else. Try airbnb for possible accommodation.
Around 2 miles from Stalbridge is Stalbridge Weston a small collection of houses and one of the most impassable paths that we encountered on our walk. Around an hour of nettle whacking and swearing later we got back onto a clear footpath, but for around 500 metres we expended a lot of energy clearing and getting stung by various forms of overgrown pointy shrub. We suggest avoiding this path if you possibly can (we would have done, except for having navigated some of the nettles, we didn't wish to retrace our steps and give them the satisfaction of stinging us a second time).
8 miles from Stalbridge lies Sherborne. This is another larger market town, with an impressive castle to the east with a well maintained deer park adjacent but also lots of threatening signs telling you to stay on the path. Sherborne has everything you might need - accommodation, food (we can highly recommend Ecco-gelato for ice cream, even though it was very cold whilst we were eating them) and a big Sainsburys. It looks like a town that specialises in art, antiques and cafes and would be a nice place to mill about for an afternoon. It's Abbey is also quite grand and it apparently has its market on a Thursday.
The photo below is sometime after Sherborne, a farmer had added extra barbed wire to the stile, that we had to climb through whilst avoiding some very interested cows.
From Sherborne it's around 5 and a half miles to Yeovil. This is a large town, that creeps into Somerset, with good transport links to Bristol and London via rail so a potentially good place to start, It has all facilities that you could want. We skipped Yeovil as we didn't fancy the road walking and instead cut through the cute village of Bradford Abbas. Abbas is Latin for Abbot and why many of the places on this route are suffixed Abbas.
The next place of interest is Yetminster - as always is has a nice church, the whole village is made from yellow sandstone and it also has a pub -the white hart, a few accommodation options and a SPAR. Its about 5 miles from Yeovil.
From Yetminster you get to the small village of Leigh, this was a trudge again on roads and in future I would have avoided these by using other footpaths maked on OS maps. Leigh has a post office / village store. Where we did try and take a footpath east from Leigh, there was a sign saying there wasn't a bridge allowing access to Hermitage so we elected to do more boring road walking. The road gradually ascends and then you get onto a track with fine views over Minterne Magna that has a fine country house and gardens and down into the Cerne valley.
On top of 'giant' hill there is a campsite and there is also a glamping place down in Cerne Abbas itself. We were slightly disappointed that altough the path takes you directly below the cerne abbas giant you get a very poor view at his feet and you'd get a better one from the other side of the valley. Cerne Abbas itself obviously benefitted from giant tourism and was one of the only places we saw people all day. It also has a tearooms (a very welcome stop and opportunity to eat out - the first proper time we did since covid lockdown), shops, 3 pubs and potential accommodation. Whilst some claim the giant is 1500 years old, the first mention of it is from 1694, and his giant member may have only become out of proportion around 100 years ago. Cerne Abbas is about 10 miles from Yetminster.
The path then takes a nice course adjacent to the river Cerne, apssing adjacent to Nether Cerne and Godmanstone, before heading out into open rolling farmland with walks around field borders and good views for many miles - including to Dorchester. Dorchester is about 10 miles from Cerne Abbas and makes another good base for a night, with plentiful restaurants, shops and several accomodation options.
The final segment of path goes through Puddletown Forest, where Hardy's cottage is located and it's then around 9 miles to Tolpuddle, which has another cute collection of thatched houses and a nice church but very few facilities.
Feel free to get in touch if you want any more information about this slightly esoteric Dorset walk!
From Sherborne it's around 5 and a half miles to Yeovil. This is a large town, that creeps into Somerset, with good transport links to Bristol and London via rail so a potentially good place to start, It has all facilities that you could want. We skipped Yeovil as we didn't fancy the road walking and instead cut through the cute village of Bradford Abbas. Abbas is Latin for Abbot and why many of the places on this route are suffixed Abbas.
The next place of interest is Yetminster - as always is has a nice church, the whole village is made from yellow sandstone and it also has a pub -the white hart, a few accommodation options and a SPAR. Its about 5 miles from Yeovil.
From Yetminster you get to the small village of Leigh, this was a trudge again on roads and in future I would have avoided these by using other footpaths maked on OS maps. Leigh has a post office / village store. Where we did try and take a footpath east from Leigh, there was a sign saying there wasn't a bridge allowing access to Hermitage so we elected to do more boring road walking. The road gradually ascends and then you get onto a track with fine views over Minterne Magna that has a fine country house and gardens and down into the Cerne valley.
On top of 'giant' hill there is a campsite and there is also a glamping place down in Cerne Abbas itself. We were slightly disappointed that altough the path takes you directly below the cerne abbas giant you get a very poor view at his feet and you'd get a better one from the other side of the valley. Cerne Abbas itself obviously benefitted from giant tourism and was one of the only places we saw people all day. It also has a tearooms (a very welcome stop and opportunity to eat out - the first proper time we did since covid lockdown), shops, 3 pubs and potential accommodation. Whilst some claim the giant is 1500 years old, the first mention of it is from 1694, and his giant member may have only become out of proportion around 100 years ago. Cerne Abbas is about 10 miles from Yetminster.
The path then takes a nice course adjacent to the river Cerne, apssing adjacent to Nether Cerne and Godmanstone, before heading out into open rolling farmland with walks around field borders and good views for many miles - including to Dorchester. Dorchester is about 10 miles from Cerne Abbas and makes another good base for a night, with plentiful restaurants, shops and several accomodation options.
The final segment of path goes through Puddletown Forest, where Hardy's cottage is located and it's then around 9 miles to Tolpuddle, which has another cute collection of thatched houses and a nice church but very few facilities.
Feel free to get in touch if you want any more information about this slightly esoteric Dorset walk!
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