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Ferndown Forest and Holt Heath

28/10/2015

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28th October 2015
Fern down and Holt Heath
Rob
Rob, Clive, Ray
7.9 miles
Drusillas
Drusillas ★★

The Leader's report - comments in poor taste have been redacted.
A lovely clear day with good amount of autumn sunshine. Ferndown Forest looking good in autumn colours, we even sang to an oak tree that appeared to have a large appendage! Holt Heath ok but on advice of Clive we avoided Crooked Withies Farm area because of floods.
Clive had a small problem and that's all I'm going to say.
Drusillas food graded at 2 out of 3 but decor in need of attention.
All members in fine fettle and returned safely to their loved ones.

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Witchampton

14/10/2015

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14th October 2015
Witchampton
Peter
Peter, Ray, Rob
8.3 miles
Witchampton Village hall and shop
Lambs Green Inn ★★▲

What a difference. The last time we were here it was pouring with rain and today it was lovely and sunny with just a little chill in the air. Witchampton is a very pleasant small village (population around 400) which seems to have a really good community spirit. One of their events is an annual get together pressing apples for cider making. Ray and Rob posed in front of the rather splendid press which was still in the car park. Well it was much too big to be running around! Shame they're looking so glum.

Hard Pressed

We set off up Pound Hill and then turned into Sheephouse Droveturning off at the second path towards The Buildings. Just before crossing the road there is a lovely looking house called Manswood. With some 5600 square feet, six bedrooms and about 1.5 acres of land this is quite an imposing property. It was, at one time, a school. Crossing the road and walking a little further along the path we reached The Buildings. Here you can see the longest stretch of thatch in England. It is 120 yards and covers 11 cottages and a shop. The lady in the end cottage kindly invited us into her garden to taker a picture.

Manswood

The Buildings

The Avenue

On the edge of the road leading west from Moor Crichel there is a rather fine avenue of trees. We walked along it for a little way but soon found it lead nowhere so retraced our steps and followed the road. This curves round to Cockroad Farm where the footpath took us through the garden before entering Oakhills Coppice.

There is some lovely woodland around here and numerous paths to choose from. We found some comfortable logs to sit on around Strawberry Coppice so stopped there for some refreshments.
There was nothing really remarkable on the route back to the village. It was just a very pleasant walk on a very pleasant day. The paths are easy to follow and I think I'll find a few more walks in this area before too long.
We retuned for lunch to The Lambs Green Inn where Wednesday is still Pie Day.

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Corfe Castle

7/10/2015

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Date:
Location:
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Participants:
Distance:
Parking:
Lunch:

7th October 2015
Corfe Castle
Clive
Cive, Peter, Ray, Rob
Just over 8 miles
Small car park below the castle
Castle Inn ★★▲

Parking in the car parks in Corfe Castle itself can be very expensive, as we soon found out, so we started our walk from the small car park just below the castle. It was enjoyable walking through the village and along West Street where there are some interesting properties to see.
Leaving the built up area we crossed Corfe Common and then out into the fields. It was not quite clear from the map whether we could follow the track the other side of Afflington Farm but this worked out perfectly. Afflington was once a small hamlet but now, apart from the Afflington Manor, there are just a few properties a couple of which are available for holiday lets. http://www.islandcottageholidays.com/purbeck/cottages/afflingtoncottage/

Afflington Manor

Huge Fungus About 40cm Diameter Probably Polyporus Squamosus Dryad's Saddle

The enormous fungus was growing on the manor house lawn and was larger than the average dinner plate. Time and location prevented a thorough examination!

Walking along by the railway we were lucky enough to be at an ideal spot when the train came by with the engine pulling the carriages in reverse. We also found a comfortable bench seat and table at the Woodhyde Campsite where we stopped for our morning break.

The Train

We did not feel welcome here!

We carried on to the Caravan Club's site at Haycrafts Farm where we surprised to see that it was almost full.
Shortly after this we found some large signs directing us away from the path shown on the map as going through the farm. We were glad that we followed these as the farm looked a bit inhospitable. There were obvious signs that this was not the best kept farm in the area. We then became somewhat nervous when several large dogs started barking and leaping at he fence in an obvious attempt to have us for dinner. We moved on swiftly and decided this is a good area to avoid in the future.

Having crossed the railway and the A351 at Harman's Cross we felt a bit safer. The route back across the fields presented a navigational challenge in a couple of places but the route was really fairly easy to follow. It was however beset with styles - too many to count.
We were lucky to get to the Castle Inn at around 2:45 and even more lucky that they agreed to serve us with a proper lunch. It is a bit on the pricey side but good quality and very friendly service.
It was then an easy stroll down hill all the way back to the car park.

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Ferndown Forest and Holt Heath

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