10. Ashmore and Stubhampton Bottom

Walk - approximately 4½ miles

Ashmore is six miles south-east of Shaftesbury and is the highest village in Dorset, seven hundred feet up in the chalk hills. A large pond in the centre has on it many ducks of various breeds. There are Georgian houses and cottages of flint, stone and brick. The church has a Norman font and beautifully embroidered hassocks illustrating the wild life of the area. It is a dry village - no pub or shop! There is one steep climb of about 250 metres.

Leave Shaftesbury on the A30 Salisbury road, and almost immediately after the roundabout by the Royal Chase Hotel on the eastern edge of the town, turn right on the B3081 Tollard Royal road. This road turns sharp left after about one mile, and you have the interesting experience of driving up Zig-Zag Hill. Turn right after approximately two and a half miles (signposted ‘Ashmore’) and park beyond the pond in the centre of the village. Walk ahead along the road which passes the War Memorial, a former Wesleyan chapel and the parish church.

About one hundred metres after the church gate turn left on a track marked ‘Bridleway only - no motors’. This is on the Wessex Ridgeway.

Go straight ahead along it for nearly one mile until you reach a belt of trees.

Turn right along a track which passes an open barn, and then bears right into the wood.

A little way along, on the right, you will see Australian gum trees, mimosa and other trees not usually found in an English wood. The track goes downhill shortly after this.

Take the first track to the left, and continue on this track, which goes down a thickly wooded valley, for approximately one mile. Ignore a forestry track which winds across it.

At the bottom there is a T junction with a forest road. Turn right into Stubhampton Bottom and follow this track for about a mile. Continue until you reach a gate on your left sign marked ‘To Iwerne Minster’. Please note that the gate lies a short distance from the road and is partly hidden by trees in the summer.

Opposite this gate take the grassy path (marked by a timber post with a blue arrow) which goes steeply uphill between the trees.

Near the top of the hill take the first track on the left and follow it through the wood.

Where the track bears off to the left downhill, turn right and go through a metal gate into a field.

Follow the right hand hedge to the end of this field.

Continue straight ahead over a stile next to a metal gate, and on to the top corner of the field.

Go through the gate and walk ahead along the road, back to Ashmore.

As you come into the village note a fine stag weathervane on the first farmhouse on the left.

Map 10. Ashmore and Stubhampton Bottom