Wessex Ridgeway Day 3: Cerne to Lower Kingcombe

Length: 20.9 km

Duration: 6:08

Total ascent/descent: 426/552 m

Max/min slope: 17%/-16%

Wayfinding: difficult, wrong and misleading way marks, no way marks at some turns. Map and compass or GPS essential.

Weather: cloudy, sunny, shorts

Dinner: Callaway Fish And Chips, Dorchester

Overnight: Premier Inn, Dorchester

Transfer: taxi from Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve to Dorchester

Blowy and big clouds in the morning but we knew it was going to be a warmer day. We started from the same field above Cerne Abbas but aimed northwest for Minterne Parva.

Minterne Parva was disappointing, felt run down. The old cockfighting building was barely visible behind brambles.

Minterne Parva stream and scultpture, which says from right to left: FRENCH GRASS • LOWER DRY MEAD; LITTLE STONEY FIELD; MILL CLOSE • PARVA BRIDGE; WASHPOOL CLOSE • WITHY BED

Up Cerne was picturesque and clearly run by an estate. Not a stone was out of place. On approach down into it, you can get a glimpse of the Manor House and its lake.

Not long after, on Gore Hill, we came to the most confusing junction of the walk so far. The obvious track was to the northwest, while the Ridgeway was due west. But the way mark was pointing to the northwest track.

Worse, the way mark for the other direction pointed to a different path that we just came from, suggesting we had not been on the Ridgeway this morning. Not sure what could have happened at this junction to have caused this chaos.

Nonetheless, at the junction, go west.

Hidden path to the left of the tempting track

Looking back towards the confusing junction

Right circle: the confusing junction described above; left circle: where a way mark would be useful rather than at the left turn just before

No visible path on this field, and the steeper decline on the far side made half of the field invisible.

Sydling St Nicholas was a very attractive village. The village pub Greyhound Inn would be worth staying at instead of Giants Head if you forego Cerne Abbas. The only problem then might be a dearth of shops to get food for the next day.

Newly thatched house with slate roof extension, High Street, Sydling St Nicholas

Beer garden of many fruit and veg plants at the Greyhound Inn in Sydling, look at the grapes!

The official Ridgeway misses the church and the abbey’s Tithe Barn. I would take the footpath and bridleway that take them in a rejoin the Ridgeway shortly after; the village pub Greyhound Inn was characterful.

Lunch view, St Mary’s Church, Maiden Newton

Maiden Newton was one of the best connected villages we had seen because it had a train station! The church yard was also a good lunch spot. However, the best thing was its meadows along the River Frome. It was an explosion of pink and magenta from policemen’s-hats, willowherbs and purple loosestrifes.

River Frome and field after field of policemen’s-helmets between Maiden Newton and Chilfrome

River Frome flowing next to the meadows we trod on

Short section on the A356 after Higher Drove was hair raising.

We rode a taxi from the Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve to Dorchester as it was impossible to find accommodation near the Ridgeway in this section.

Dorchester surprised me with its tidy streets, spruced up Brewey Square, and varied architecture. It was certainly superior to the towns I saw recently in Kent.

Elisabeth Frink’s Dorset Martyrs Memorial

We ended up having takeaway fish and chips on a bench on Fordington Green, after walking about the town centre and getting some more gear at Great Western Camping, an old-timer outdoorsy shop still run by the same family. The chip shop also looked to be family run, everyone uniformed and capped, also friendly and efficient. Quiet West Country vitality is alive and well in Dorchester.

Callaway Fish And Chips: whirring of the fryer while people chattered and waited for their takeaway dinners on a sunny summer evening, punctuated by orders 38 and 39 being called out.

Wessex Ridgeway Day 3: Cerne to Lower Kingcombe

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