Circular Walk from Colehill to Furzehill

Here is a walk from home exercise which starts and finishes at Colehill War Memorial (SU 024 009) and stays mostly within the civil parish of Colehill.  It is mostly level, over farmland and through woodland with a few short stretches of road walking.  It takes in a nice display of bluebells in Furzehill Wood during the appropriate season.

At the time of writing the paths are dry and clear of obstructing vegetation, though narrow in places.  Because of some narrow paths and a multitude of stiles and pinch-points it is unsuitable for push-chairs and for people with restricted mobility.  One field has sheep in it, so dogs should be on leads.  A couple of the stiles are rickety but the footbridges are sound.

The walk takes a shade under two hours at a fairly leisurely pace.

Begin by crossing Colehill Lane and proceed along the path which passes to the left of an electricity sub-station.  Follow the path which twists along but stays roughly parallel to the St. Michael's School fenceline until you reach the footpath (E36/25) on the right opposite the Beaucroft School adventure play-area.  Turn right onto the footpath and continue to follow the boundary fence of St. Michael's playing fields, it doglegs to the right and through a chicane gate.  Keep going until you reach the next chicane gate and then go left onto the bridleway (E36/24), down the hill, past Chapel Cottage to meet Long Lane.  Turn left and proceed carefully for a couple of hundred metres along Long Lane towards The Horns Inn until you reach the road on the right and our newly refurbished fingerpost.

Turn right (signposted for Dumpton School), walk for 50m or so but don't go on round to the school.  Turn left along Deans Grove for about 150m until you reach the footpath (E36/32) on the right.  Take this well defined footpath between a wire fence to the left and the woodland on the right.  The footpath passes alongside a large field and then crosses a small footbridge onto Dogdean.  Turn left for about 50m before taking the footpath (E36/31) towards Furzehill down the side of the first house on the right.  This actually appears to go through the garden of the house there and behind an outbuilding but it then crosses a stile and proceeds between fencing on the left and right until reaching Furzehill and another stile.

Turn left onto Furzehill for a few metres until reaching the driveway on the right signposted for Nursery Cottage, Badgergate, Uplands and Peace Haven.  A little way up that driveway pass through the gateway on the left into Furzehill Wood https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/woods/furzehill-wood/.  This is the bluebell wood that I mentioned, gifted to the Woodland Trust in 1982.  There is a circular path of sorts but we are aiming for the gateway in the north-east corner which passes into the rear of the car park of the former council offices.  It is a bit eerie walking past the boarded up office buildings and the dedication stone laid by the chairman of the then Wimborne District Council in 1982 but I understand that an agreement has been reached with the prospective developer to maintain a path between Furzehill Wood and the road where the "Council Office Now Closed" sign currently stands.  Take the opportunity at this juncture to go through the entrance behind the council sign to explore the circular network of paths in Woodleaze Copse, which is also set to remain when the former council office site is developed.  There is a navigable path round the other side of the old council building that goes in to the copse but it is not clearly defined (yet).

Go back out onto Furzehill and turn left.  Keeping to the right-hand verge, to face any oncoming traffic, walk northwards past The Stocks Inn for about 600m until you reach the entrance to the footpath on the right at Stocks Farm.  There are two footpaths shown on the map here but only one is apparent on the ground.  We want the clearly marked path (E45/33) over the stile to the left of the farm driveway.  It jinks left after about 50m and passes between fences and past some caravans on the left, after which it opens out into some arable fields and then onto a narrow woodland path and over a stream to join Long Lane adjacent to Old Dairy Cottage.  The field behind the cottage has sheep grazing in it, there is signage on the Long Lane side but not when coming from the north so make sure you have any dog(s) on leads.

Turn left onto Long Lane for about 400m before turning right onto Footpath E36/5, through some more farmland and horse paddocks.  Note that the footpath goes diagonally across the 2nd field to the stile and another footbridge in the top left corner.  Aim to the left of the leftmost bare tree which you can see on the hedgeline!  The path then goes between field boundaries to join Colehill Lane almost opposite Little Lonnen.

Pass through Little Lonnen to join Lonnen Road, turn left and then right into Sandy Lane and take the footpath E36/14 on the right between Nos 16 and 18 after about 100m.  This footpath passes along the backs of houses on both left and right then across the end of Mallard Road before finishing at the end of Glynville Road.  Proceed ahead along Glynville Road and then turn right into Middlehill Road.  Continue along Middlehill Road to the footpath (E36/21) across the common at Kyrchil Corner.  Cross Wimborne Road and take the permissive path through Colehill Triangle back to the starting point at the War Memorial.

KD Johnson 27th April 2020