Jubilee Trail

The Jubilee Trail, created to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Ramblers’ Association,  is an 88-mile path that meanders its way from east to west (or vice versa) across Dorset. Our daughter and son-in-law started walking it in 2020, and when we went to stay with them for the August bank-holiday weekend, we walked a leg with them, from Chettle to Tarrant and beyond (and back on a circuit) and very much enjoyed it. This shouldn’t have surprised us, given how much we had enjoyed the Wessex Ridgeway, and a previous walk with them on Chanborne Chase (as part of Helen and Tom's "Cranborne Canter").

Helen was heavily pregnant when we walked that leg of the Jubilee Trail with them. By the time we returned to the Jubilee Trail in 2022, after a week in a holiday cottage during which our "Cranborne Canter" became Cranborne Circles, our grandson was 18 months old, so Helen and Tom's serious walking exploits were in abeyance. This time we started at the eastern end of the Jubilee Trail, at the Hampshire/Dorset border at Bockerley Ditch on Martin Down.  We progressed by way of occasional trips from Helen and Tom's house, but mostly on what became an annual cottage holiday in the area in late April/early May, staying in cottages in Shroton (Iwerne Courtney) in 2023, in Cheselbourne in 2024 and on the Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve (right on the path) in 2025.  In addition to giving us the opportunity to walk in this beautiful area, these holidays have enabled us to see more of our grandson and his family and to visit historic houses and other attractions.

The Dorset countryside is undulating and the walking on the Jubilee Trail is therefore delightfully varied, from high downland with views to the coast to pretty wooded valleys. You're not climbing mountains, but there are some steep ascents and descents.  Because we have walked most of the Jubilee Trail in spring, we have been rewarded by amazing displays of bluebells, wild garlic, cowslips and gorse - and by baby lambs. The villages on the path tend to be "quaint and picturesque", complete with thatched roofs etc., but be warned that some of the roads you need to use to get to starting points are distinctly narrow and steep. Fortunately, they are also generally very quiet; although the Dorset coast is a popular tourist destination, much of the inland countryside through which we were walking remains relatively undiscovered. Shhh...

At the time of writing (May 2025) we have walked as far as Mapperton House, to the south east of Beaminster, meaning that we are just 13 miles from the end at Forde Abbey on the Dorset/Somerset border. However, we're not in a rush to finish it, there is still much to explore. We have walked much of the path by way of a series of circular walks (sometimes also making use of the Wessex Ridgeway, the White Hart Link , the Hardy Way, the South Dorset Ridgeway, and the Macmillan Way) and we will most likely wait to finish it in similar fashion, perhaps while on a cottage holiday in April or May 2026?

First leg