| Date: Location: Walk Leader: 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/
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.
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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