The richly varied landscape and the historical treasures of Dorset have inspired generations of authors including Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy (born near Dorchester or ‘Casterbridge’ as he called it) and more recently John Fowles who wrote ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’. The film of this book contained a famous scene of Meryl Streep walking along ‘The Cobh’ at Lyme Regis, which is where we start our walk. You can’t walk far without encountering places immortalised by Hardy in his Wessex novels and ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ is still an appropriate description of the many rural villages which lie peacefully unspoilt in Dorset’s hidden valleys and rolling hills.

From Lyme Regis we follow the coast as it stretches eastwards, first to Charmouth, an area famous for its fossil-encrusted cliffs, and then to the l90m headland of orange sandstone known as the Golden Gap - highest point on the south coast of England. The coast is followed along an undulating cliff path to the small fishing village of Bridport, continuing on through a landscape of hill forts and burial mounds before dropping down to the beautifully preserved villageo f Abbotsbury which does not even have street lighting! The medieval tithe barn of Abbotsbury, still used as a storehouse for reeds cut from the nearby lagoon. The village is also famous for its ‘swannery’, a nature reserve for wild swans founded in medieval times.

We then turn inland and reach the huge Iron Age fort of Maiden Castle - a good hour can be spent walking its enclosure. This was overwhelmed by the Romans in AD 70. From the rampartsstroll into historic Dorchester, there is a historic walk with the town, and walks to Hardy's Cottage and a return walk from beautiful Cerne Abbas. We then return to the coast to walk past the natural arch of Durdle Door to Lulworth Cove, a sandy bay ringed with magnificent cliffs.