The Blue Pool Beauty Spot

1 Walk south on the main road through the village, passing the drive to Furzebrook House on the left. Furzebrook is an unremarkable estate village of Victorian houses and its roads are stained white by the lorries from the claypits. Furzebrook House is once more a private house. Commandeered during the Second World War, it was in such poor shape by the end of it that the Barnards refused to take it back - it became, instead, a government research establishment, which it remained for many years. At the end of the park wall turn left down a straight drive, signed to the Blue Pool. Descend gently, to pass a parking area on the left and then the entrance to the Blue Pool on the right.

2 Continue straight ahead, up the track into the woods, and soon emerge at the edge of an area of heath, dotted with Scots pines. Stay on the main track (ignore a path to the left), go through a kissing gate and follow the yellow marker on to the heath. Shortly after this, look for a post on your left, indicating that the footpath leaves the vehicular track. Bear left on the peaty path through gorse and heather, following green Purbeck Heritage markers. Go through another kissing gate. Turn right up the track at the marker stone, signed 'East Creech'.

3 Continue past a forest of drunken birch trees on your left, then through pretty woodland dripping with moss and lichen. Cross a sleeper bridge over a marsh, where the water is stained orange by iron ore. Pass through some pines, with a pool on the left, and continue along the boundary fence - you'll hear a waterfall off to the left.

4 At a junction of paths (with bridges to your left) go straight on, following the blue marker, again signposted 'East Creech'. Pass a reedy pool on the left. Keep straight ahead on the broad track (part of the Purbeck Way) that leads up through the woods. Pass a larger pool up on the right - it looks the sort of place where Henry Thoreau would have built his cabin. The soil underfoot is black and springy with peat. Look for the old holly trees with ferns growing all over them.
At the road turn left and walk down to a junction. Turn right here and walk up the road into East Creech village. This is an attractive corner of farmland and little hills. Pass Creech Farm with its duck pond, and a pretty pair of cottages: Wild Rose and Rockley. Keep right past the post box and walk along the valley, with distant views to Poole and Bournemouth.

5 Pass some woods on the left and the high point of Creech Barrow Hill, also to your left. The road rises steadily to pass a big thatched house, again on the left. As the road starts to descend there are magnificent views inland over the Isle of Purbeck, with Wareham ahead. Turn right along a lane just before a farm and soon cross a stile to the right (before the farm gate).

6 Turn left then bear right, down the field to the corner. Cross over the stile and bear diagonally left down the hill, following yellow markers across the heath, through trees and gorse. Go through an area of beeches, with bracken below. Pass between a shed and a garden fence, then pass a house on the right and walk straight ahead to meet the road.

7 Turn left and retrace your steps through Furzebrook to the start.