for the best in nordic walking, guided walks and weekends away

(New for 2008)

Friday 3 - Sunday 5 or Monday 6 October

Friday 10 - Sunday 12 or Monday 13 October

(2 or 3 nights) (B grade: 8-9 miles daily)

Walking in the stunning countryside surrounding the ‘sweet Be’mi’ster’ of William Barnes, the Brit Valley & the Jurassic Coast

The Bridge House Hotel, Beaminster

Dinner, bed and breakfast at the privately-owned Bridge House, a 700-year-old former priest’s house with crackling log fires in centuries-old inglenooks, stone mullioned windows, oak beams and candles. The restaurant has been awarded two AA Rosettes, has featured in the BBC’s Good Food magazine and enjoys an enviable reputation for fine dining, using a wealth of local organic produce. Johansen’s and Alistair Sawday recommended.

Price per person: £262 for 2 nights, £90 extra night dinner, bed and breakfast

Accommodation: 1 single, 5 doubles for single occupancy, 1 family room (comprising 1 room with a double bed and a separate room with a single bed, both sharing a bathroom (suitable for 2 friends), 1 four-poster, 2 superior doubles, 2 standard doubles, 1 superior twin, 1 standard twin.

Availability

as at 4 April 2008

‘B’ Grade 3-5 October

Full

‘B’ Grade 10-12 October  

Standard Twin    1

Travel & Transport

By rail: two-hourly trains from London Waterloo to Crewkerne (2.26 hours) with onward travel by taxi (6 miles). We can arrange shared travel or taxi-sharing if required. By road, total mileage from central London: 145 miles (3.14 hours). We may be able to arrange car-sharing if required. Car parking available at the hotel.

Transport to the walk on Saturday is by minibus; on the Sunday we walk directly from the hotel with no transport required.

Beautiful Beaminster (Hardy’s Emminster) is a delightful base, one of the most perfectly sited of all Dorset towns, idyllically situated in a broad bowl-shaped valley in the heart of West Dorset. The hotel shares the same stretch of the River Brit made famous by Channel 4’s ‘River Cottage’ series.

Itinerary

Friday
A welcome meeting followed by dinner in the hotel’s award-winning restaurant.

Saturday
Our coach drops us at Charmouth, on the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site, gateway to 95 miles of unspoilt coast, for one of the best walks in Dorset. A local expert will explain something of the 185 million years of fossil history. On via gorse-covered Stonebarrow Hill and the former fishing village of St Gabriel’s to dazzling Golden Cap, the highest cliff on the south coast of England. Here, magnificent views extend from Portland Bill in the east to Lyme Regis and Devon’s Start Point in the west; inland you see Pilsdon Pen and as far as the heights of Dartmoor. After lunch at The Anchor at the tiny fishing hamlet of Seatown, overlooking Lyme Bay, the coastal path winds through a lovely stretch of bracken, heather, bilberry and blackberry to our journey’s end at West Bay. This is a working harbour, bustling with fishing boats and other craft, refreshingly unsophisticated. After tea, our coach returns us to Beaminster and the comforts of our hotel.  (8.5 miles, 'B' grade)

Sunday
Today a contrasting walk direct from the hotel, through historic Beaminster, to the serene and timeless landscape around the head of the Brit Valley. The walk is rich in picturesque villages, hidden in folds in the land and largely overlooked. We visit enchanting Netherbury and Stoke Abbott, each with an ancient church and a clutch of thatched cottages. Lunch at Stoke Abbott’s thatched 17th century New Inn, with excellent food in a beautiful garden overlooking a wooded valley. Nearby are the wooded slopes of Lewesdon Hill, inspiration for poets, including the young William Wordsworth who roamed this ridge of hills; in the distance is Pisden Pen, stark and woodless, the highest point in Dorset. We finish with a fine ridge walk, following in the footsteps of William Barnes, the Dorset poet, over Waddon Hill and Gerrard’s Hill, with views to Somerset and Devon and down the Brit Valley towards Bridport. (9 miles, ‘B’ grade)

Brecon Beacons    Black Mountains    Dovedale    Dorset & Jurassic Coast    New Forest & Isle of Wight