iweekend 25-26 March 2017 51 The Dorset Royal Chase itinerary takes in Cranborne and Sixpenny Handley = UK = e are five minutes into a tailor-made rambling weekend or- our walk when we ganised by Alison Howell’s Foot Trails. encounter our first The Bath-based company specialises Dorset wildlife. On a in sustainable rural walking holidays A walk Wnarrow, hedge-lined across south-west England, and How- bridleway skirting the Eastbury House ell’s local knowledge allows her to cre- estate at Tarrant Gunville, a grouse ate packages that take the hassle out of flaps out of the bushes and scuttles choosing routes and accommodation. through off along the path ahead of us. Within We are following half of the com- seconds, the nervous bird is joined by pany’s “Dorset Royal Chase” itiner- a second, then a third. We follow our ary – a one-way, four-night trail that feathered guides for five minutes, until leads from one country inn to another, history the enclosed track widens and the normally with two nights at each loca- birds scatter into the fields around the tion, and walks varying in lengths from Chettle Long Barrow, leaving us alone seven to 12 miles. Richard Blackmore discovers ancient to take in our first views across the an- A couple of weeks before we set off, cient landscape of Cranborne Chase. we received a recyclable Foot Trails burial mounds, royal hunting grounds My partner and I have come to and an astrological ditch in Dorset foottrails.co.uk this sleepy corner of East Dorset for Continued overleaf Take us away with you travel iweekend 52 25-26 March 2017 53 Continued from page 51 Battle of Britain ace Roland “Bee” Has ‘Beauty and the Beast’ put staying Beaumont, who later became the UK’s in a castle on your bucket list? You don’t “Walk and Explore” box, contain- leading post-war test pilot. have to go far or put up with a ruin ing the essentials for our self-guided From the church, our steepest climb – the UK is full of castles that have been adventure: waterproof A4 Ordnance takes us to the top of the 185m-high Best renovated into fancy hotels. They may Survey maps and ring-bound trail Pentridge Hill. At the summit, we ad- not come with pools and sun terraces cards with numbered routes to follow, mire the panoramic views and picnic British castle like their continental neighbours, highlighting points of interest and his- near a clump of beeches and pines that hotels but what they lack in tan-friendly amenities, they make up for in gossip. toric sites; nature cards for identifying conceals a small Iron Age hill fort; there by Dawn Emery wild flowers, trees and animals; plus a is no sound but birdsong and the warm From a resident ghost in County Antrim fortifying bag of sweets and a voucher breeze whistling through the trees. to Henry VIII’s honeymoon suite, here’s for a bottle of wine at our first inn. In late afternoon, we trek the final our guide to where to go if you want Our treks are designed to provide GETTING THERE few miles towards Cranborne, a former to live a few days like royalty… a snapshot of Cranborne Chase, the The Dorset trail usually Saxon settlement and monastic centre UK’s sixth-largest Area of Outstanding begins near Shaftesbury. that gave the region its name. When a Natural Beauty. Covering 380 square The nearest train station is brief, heavy shower forces us to shelter Doyden Castle miles and overlapping the boundaries The 16th-century Inn but the Museum Inn survives – and is Tisbury, Wiltshire; transfer in a copse, we realise we are sharing Port Quin, Cornwall of Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and At Cranborne was last the jump-off point for our stroll. from station to inn is about our refuge with deer, perhaps descend- Somerset, the Chase has evidence of year voted the UK’s most Our first afternoon takes in a gen- 25 minutes. ants of those medieval herds chased Nineteenth-century party animal human habitation dating back millen- dog-friendly inn tle four-mile section of the Foot Trails by the kings of England. Cranborne Samuel Symons built Doyden in 1830 as nia. Its rolling chalk grasslands, wood- “Dorset Cottages” route. A taxi drops STAYING THERE became a hunting destination in the a “pleasure house”, where he would drink lands, chalk escarpments, hillsides and us off at Tarrant Gunville to make our The full Dorset Royal Chase 13th century, when King John visited and gamble with friends. The truncated river valleys are home to vast numbers own way back to Farnham. The foot- itinerary costs from the downs. Later, Henry VIII founded Gothic tower, which featured in Poldark, of archaeological remains, including paths and hedges along the trail are £495 per person, based on a hunting lodge, modified by the 1st has dramatic coastal views. It’s now run one of the largest concentrations of dotted with wild flowers, butterflies two sharing, including Earl of Salisbury to create Cranborne as a one-bedroom let for two, with Rock, burial monuments in England. and big-sky views stretching for miles. four nights’ B&B. Manor House for the visits of James I. Polzeath and Port Isaac all within four The once-heavily wooded plateau That evening, we enjoy hearty gas- (foottrails.co.uk) We pass the imposing, walled manor miles. From £233 per night, minimum stay of the Chase became a royal hunting tropub fare in the Museum Inn and as we enter the village and find our two nights, nationaltrustholidays.org.uk ground after the Norman conquest. One while away an hour or two in the cosy, home for the night, The Inn At Cran- of the fathers of modern archaeology, We picnic near a low-beamed bar before retiring to our Near the valley floor a fence tracks borne. The 16th-century pub has nine General Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt room in the converted stables. the route of the mysterious Dorset Cur- rooms and was voted the UK’s most Rivers, carried out much of his pioneer- clump of beeches Our Sunday walk follows a nine-mile sus – a six-mile ditch and bank which dog-friendly inn last year, with pet pals ing work in the Chase, having inherited and pines that stretch of Howell’s “Beyond the Chase” may have had astrological significance allowed in two bedrooms, dog treats on the Rushmore Estate at Tollard Royal route, and our taxi ferries us to nearby for the ancient Britons. A path along the bar and canine breakfasts available. Thornbury Castle South Gloucestershire in 1880. During his lifetime he amassed conceals an Iron Sixpenny Handley to stock up on lunch the Crane leads us into the cul-de-sac Humans are well catered for, too, more than 50,000 artefacts. Age hill fort; there supplies. The trail from “6D” takes us village of Pentridge, which features with an award-winning “30-Mile Menu” Guests at this 16th-century castle can sleep in a distant cousin, ordered his beheading for alleged As squire of the old Saxon village of on to Handley Down, along the edges of in Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the that includes game, meat, fish, seafood, the very room in which King Henry VIII spent treason, and conveniently got the castle too. Guests Farnham, he set up a private museum is no sound but enormous fields and past more burial d’Urbervilles as Trantridge, where Tess vegetables and herbs from within a 30- his honeymoon with Anne Boleyn, The Duke’s can also stay in the Tower Suite, at the top of a 77-step for his collection and updated its 17th- birdsong and the mounds. Across the A354 we spot the keeps poultry for Alec and his mother. mile radius. Before our dinner, however, Bedchamber, which overlooks the oldest Tudor garden spiral staircase. The décor includes 24-carat gilding, century inn to cater for Victorian visi- remains of a Roman road, the Ackling An etched window in the tiny church a roll-top bath offers a soothing soak in the country. The castle was originally owned by silk wall hangings and the largest four-poster bed in tors. His museum closed in the 1960s, breeze whistling Dyke, before descending into the wide, of St Rumbold commemorates Pen- for aching limbs, after our short walk Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham, but his any UK hotel at a whopping 10ft wide. Doubles from its collection carted off to Salisbury, through the trees green valley of the River Crane. tridge’s most famous resident, the though Dorset’s long history. tenure as landlord was cut short when the king, £195, B&B, luxuryfamilyhotels.co.uk the inDepenDent No more strained, sore or tired eyes Peckforton Castle Roch Castle Cheshire Pembrokeshire In 1844, Lord Tollemache, a “man of This is one for romantics. Situated on a Revolutionary light considerable eccentricity”, decided to rocky hill, with views of St Brides Bay, Try risk RED HOT build a castle in the style of a medieval Roch Castle is a six-bedroom, five-star gives you back fortress. The Grade I listed property has hotel which has won a slew of awards. free for 48 individually designed rooms, uses Built in 1280, the castle’s claim to fame OFFERS local produce in its restaurants, and is that it was the birthplace and home 30 days crystal clear clarity has recently been working with Natural of Lucy Walter, mistress to Charles Unlimited FREE Drinks England to rehouse some surprise II and mother of his son, the Duke of and vivid colour.