The Royal Forest of Cranborne

Exploring extensive plantations on the steeply rolling landscape of a Norman royal hunting forest.

Distance 4 miles (6.4km)

Minimum time 2hrs

Ascent/gradient 165ft (50m)

Level of difficulty Medium

Paths Woodland paths and tracks, quiet roads, farm paths, 3 stiles

Landscape Woods and valleys of Cranborne Chase

Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer 118 Shaftesbury & Cranborne Chase

Start/finish SU 003194

Dog friendliness Strict control required in RSPB woods; one unfriendly stile

Parking Garston Wood car park (free), on Bowerchalke road 2 miles (3.2km) north of Sixpenny Handley

Public toilets None on route

Write a review of this walk

Directions
Background
Information

1 Go through the gate in the corner and take the broad track that leads up through the woods. Go straight ahead through a kissing gate and emerge at the corner of a field. Keep right, up the edge of this field, and continue straight on.

2 At a junction of tracks turn left and walk alongside the hedge, on a waymarked bridleway, through rolling farmland dotted with trees. The muddy farm track leads gently downhill. Where it sweeps left into the farm, go straight ahead on a grassy track. Pass some cow byres on the left, with Upwood farmhouse largely hidden in some trees ahead, and turn right along the lane. Continue through a gate, along an old avenue of sycamores between high banks and hedges.

3 Pass a house on the right and bear left on a steep, narrow path straight down the hill to emerge on a road, in the hamlet of Deanland. Turn right, pass a phone box and reach a gate on the left, with a yellow marker. Go through, bear diagonally right across a small field to cross a stile, then bear left up the edge of the field, with woods to your left.

4 Look for a stile on your left, but turn directly right here, to walk across the field, parallel with the road. Over the brow of the hill ahead, the pleasing higgledy-piggledy settlement of New Town can be seen. Head for the stile in the bottom corner of the field. Turn left up the lane, which becomes a broad, woodland track. Follow this for ½ mile (800m). By the entrance to a conifer wood, eloquently named the Great Forlorn, look for the yellow marker and turn right up the hill. After a steep climb it levels out, with fields on your left. Keep straight on, with good views across to West Chase house, at the head of its own valley. Descend steadily, then cross a stile to emerge at a road by a lodge house.

5 Cross straight over on to a broad track and immediately turn up to the right on a narrow path beside a fence. Follow this straight up the hill through the woods - it levels out towards the top, with fields on the left. At a junction of tracks keep left then bear right, continuing along the edge of the wood, and eventually descending to reach the road. Turn right to return to the car park at Garston Wood.

Cranborne Chase covers around 100 square miles (259sq km) of the long chalk massif which straddles the Dorset/Wiltshire border east of Shaftesbury. Once a royal hunting preserve, it is now mostly rolling grassland with pockets of mixed woodland. Compared with other parts of Dorset, there are few settlements here, a sign of the feudal state in which the land was held until 1830. Like most of southern England after the last Ice Age, Dorset became smothered in a natural growth of native, broadleaved woodland, such as oak, ash and elm. As the human population grew and spread, this woodland was gradually cleared, firstly for its valuable timber and secondly to make way for agricultural land. The hunting 'forest' of Cranborne Chase claimed by William the Conqueror therefore included open sections of heath, downland, scrub and rough pasture, as well as patches of remaining woodland. Little original forest remains on the Chase - most woods show signs of mixed planting and of many generations of coppicing.

The effects of planting for timber in the late 18th century can be seen in the widespread stands of non-native beech across the Chase. Trees for timber were planted compactly to encourage tall, straight growth with a minimum of interruption from side branches.

Coppicing, the chief form of woodland management, was designed to produce a continuous supply of timber for everyday use. Hazel that was cut back or coppiced when young would grow long, straight poles. Repeating the exercise produced a steady supply of timber for thatching spars, hurdles and other uses. The resulting multi-stemmed growths, or stools, can be seen today all over Dorset's woods and include oak, ash, alder, sweet chestnut and even sycamore. In Garston Wood you can see the effects of modern coppicing in action on hazel and field maple. The seven to eight year cycle of cutting means that there are different stages of tree development within the one wood, creating more light and space than if it were left unmanaged. This produces an optimum habitat for wildlife, including sunlight-loving butterflies such as the silver washed fritillary and purple hairstreak.

The pursuit of fallow deer on the Chase provided the mainstay of royal sport. The deer can still be seen here, especially in the early evening. Cranborne Chase changed hands many times. The hunting rights were acquired by King John and retained by most succeeding monarchs until the 17th century. In 1714 they passed to the Pitt-Rivers family, who ruled the area like feudal overlords. Operating under so-called Chase Law and free from the constraints of normal policing, Cranborne became a byway for smugglers and a refuge for criminals, often with bloody results - especially when conflicts arose over poaching. In 1830, after considerable local pressure, Chase Law was abandoned and consequently life became a little more settled.

While you're there

Sixpenny Handley has one of the oddest names in England, which alone justifies a visit. The prefix derives from a mix of English and Celtic words and means 'hill of the Saxons'. Much of the old village was destroyed in a fire of 1892. Today it's a bold, lively and modern village with lots of new housing.

Where to eat and drink

The Roebuck Inn free house at Sixpenny Handley serves real ale and traditional, home-cooked food in its bright and airy front restaurant. Try lasagne, cod and chips, baguettes, jacket potatoes or tackle the poached salmon on the fuller menu. A roast Sunday lunch is served throughout the winter. In summer you can enjoy the large beer garden. Dogs are welcome in the garden, supervised children are allowed in the restaurant.

What to look for

Listen for the nightingale's song in Garston Wood. The RSPB is trying to balance its needs against those of the endangered turtle dove in its management of the wood. In the early 1980s a young commercial plantation of beech, larch and Corsican pine drew the nightingales. By 1993 the dense understorey in which they thrived had been smothered by the tree canopy, and they disappeared. The plantation is gradually being felled and replanted to provide a suitable habitat to woo the nightingales back.