Mysterious Moonfleet

1 Cross the stile at the lay-by to walk down the field towards the Fleet, signed 'Coastal Path'. Pass the Moonfleet Manor Hotel on your right, cross a stile and continue down. Turn right through a gate. Descend steps into some trees to cross a bridge and stile. Continue past the hotel, with the shell of a boathouse on the left.
There's something eerie about the Fleet lagoon, trapped by a high bank of sighing golden shingle. John Meade Falkner captured the mysterious atmosphere in his popular 1898 adventure novel about smugglers and kidnapping, Moonfleet. Moonfleet is a corruption of Mohun, and gives its name to a handsome but isolated Georgian hotel on the inland shore. One of its nicknames is Dead Man's Bay, a grim reflection of the many lives that have been lost in shipwrecks here, for on the seaward side of the bank the water is deep and treacherous. Wrecks include the Hope of Amsterdam, which caused mayhem in 1748 when it sank, because gold and silver were washed ashore.

2 Cross a bridge and stile in the ball and pass Gore Cove on the left. Cross a stile to the right and walk inland along the wall. Bear right through a gate on to a lane. Follow this up the hill to Langton Herring, walking on pink granite chippings. Go through a gate and down to Fleet Way Cottage. Turn right, down the lane, and continue straight ahead, with the Elm Tree pub on the left. Retrace your route, passing the hotel again. At the gate turn right along the fence, with the wedge of Portland ahead. Go through a gate and continue along the field edge. Beware of passing racehorses from Sea Barn Farm, up the hill on the left, which train on the gallop beside you. Pass some old pill-boxes.
Chesil Bank is a storm beach, stretching 17 miles (27km) from Bridport's West Bay down to the cliffs at Portland. The stones that form it were deposited into the Channel by meltwater after the last Ice Age and washed back towards the land by the relentless motion of the waves. The stones are graded in size, from pea-sized gravel at the western end to hefty cobbles at Portland. It is said that local sailors washed ashore or smugglers landing their booty in the dark could tell their exact whereabouts by the size of the pebbles beneath their feet.

3 The path curves in round Butterstreet Cove. Turn right, cwn some steps that run through wind-blown hawthorn. Cross a footbridge and stile. Continue to cross a stile by a gate and bear round to the left, towards the tiny hamlet of East Fleet.
This was the scene in 1824 of dreadful destruction, when Chesil Bank was breached. In a violent storm the sea swept over the top. The village was washed away, leaving nothing but the chancel of the church. That still exists, containing memorials to the Mohun family, and a few houses that were rebuilt around it. The Fleet itself is some 8 miles (13km) long. The muddy shallows benefit from vast underwater pastures of long, wavy eelgrass - great food for birds and habitat for a variety of other marine life, including pipe fish and sticklebacks. Even in winter, when it dies back and is washed up along the water line like scrambled cassette tape, it's a refuge for little green shore crabs.

4 Bear right over a footbridge, passing what's left of the church on the left. Cross a stile by a gate and d straight ahead, past a row of cottages, to the road. Turn left and follow this uphill into the village of Fleet Common. Pass the newer church of pinkish stone and stay on this road for another ½ mile (800m) to a junction. Go straight ahead, passing a Victorian post box on your left, then go through the manorial gateway with its stone lions. The sea now comes back into view. Follow the road down through woods and past several houses, to return to your car. The road continues, curving left, to end at the Moonfleet Manor Hotel.