Walks around Kingcombe National Nature Reserve

For our fourth consecutive April/May holiday in Dorset, we were staying at Pound Cottage, a delightful cottage in a very convenient place, at SY554990, close to where the Wessex Ridgeway and the Jubilee Trail cross in the hamlet of Lower Kingcombe. We walked through Lower Kingcombe, within a couple of hundred metres of the cottage, when we were walking from Maiden Newton to Beaminster on the Wessex Ridgeway in 2014 (and we would walk to and from the cottage by way of the Jubilee Trail later in the week). The location of Pound Cottage is a little odd in that it is – literally – in the middle of a car park, but that’s because it is on the Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve, owned by the Dorset Wildlife Trust, and the car park in question is the overflow car park for the visitor centre. Weirdly, even though it is in a car park, Pound Cottage is one of the most peaceful places I have stayed; in the night we were not at all troubled by noise or light.

The Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve and the Powerstock Common Nature Reserve, 2.5 miles away, together comprise the Kingcombe National Nature Reserve. We reached Pound Cottage yesterday evening, and before setting off to explore further afield, we spent today exploring the waymarked trails and other paths on the National Nature Reserve itself. This morning, we popped into the Visitor Centre (which is an interesting place, with a nice-looking café, which we visited the following day with our family; today we popped in mostly to report the fact that the wifi in the cottage was not working) then explored the Kingcombe Meadows Purple Trail. This afternoon we drove to Powerstock Common where our circular walk was based on their Orange Trail, before returning to Kingcombe Meadows to walk the Orange Trail there. They were all lovely; it was good to be back in Dorset. Despite a weather forecast that had been poor for today, it stayed dry all day. It was misty first thing and by the time we walked the Kingombe Meadows Orange Trail, a haziness had again developed. But the Sun was shining for much of the day.

Kingcombe Meadows Purple Trail, about 0.9 mile of walking, 26 minutes

To access the Purple and Orange trails from the Visitor Centre, the path leads just about past the front door of Pound Cottage and out to Kingcombe Road, the road we had approached the cottage along yesterday (from Toller Porcorum) and which the Jubilee Trail briefly passes. You really couldn’t get much more convenient for the path! The route of the Purple and Orange routes are initially coincident, then the Purple Trail veered slightly left on an anticlockwise circuit around lovely open countryside, particularly attractive at this time of year, with the fresh greens of the trees and bluebells alongside the hedgerows. The return route across Middle Mead and Coarse Mead became wet underfoot, giving a change in the flora. The descent to a stile out onto the return track was damp and slippery, so a bit tricky given I hadn’t taken my walking poles on the walk. However, we were rewarded by finding ourselves on the Jubilee Trail on its route west from Lower Kingcombe. We followed this back along an attractive track and then the minor road leading back to Pound Cottage, stopping the recording of our track at the point on the road where we had set off.

However, we continued past our accommodation in order to find where we’d walked back in 2014 on the Wessex Ridgeway (when we’d failed to find the visitor centre!). We reached the Wessex Ridgeway at a bend in the road and turned onto Butt’s Lane, now on the route of both the Wessex Ridgeway and the Jubilee Trail. Where the two routes separated, we took neither, rather continuing up Butt’s Lane, a stony track,  which climbs all the way up to the A356. It was very attractive, but quite difficult walking (especially on the way back down) so we just continued to the start of the outlying part of the Kingcombe Meadows reserve, up to the east of the rest, then retraced our steps.

Powerstock Common Orange Trail with extension, about 2.4 miles of walking, 1 hour 20 minutes

After lunch, we decided to explore Powerstock Common. We could have walked from the cottage, and it would have been a pleasant walk (even if we had followed the road all the way, they were extremely minor roads with very few cars passing). However, we wanted to explore Powerstock Common properly so didn’t want to feel that we were at the end of a walk when we got there, so we took the car. The route does indeed go along minor and narrow roads, but we didn’t pass anything coming the other way. However, when we arrived, another three vehicles pulled into the car park behind us. We parked in the little car park by the road, but they continued up the track to the even smaller car park further up the track, where we followed on foot. We’d decided to follow the longer of the two walks at Powerstock Common, though the information provided doesn’t say how long it is, and in any case we decided to extend the walk by way of the footpath that the leaflet about Powerstock Common shows as passing the viewpoint, so as to see the view to the east.

The first part of the walk was straightforward, following the orange markers, which led us to the disused railway line along the north-western boundary of the reserve, passing the “bat hut”. Where signposted, we turned left, with good views opening up to the south. We reached the point at which the orange route turns left again, into the woodland in the heart of the reserve. However, this route doesn’t directly join up with the footpath we were looking for. We initially intended to continue on the orange route for now and then cut across, but we now decided to at least try to continue a little further south so as to join up with the footpath at the point where it headed into the woodland. We were initially well pleased with ourselves; exactly where we had expected it, there was a gate with a bridleway heading through it. However, our self-satisfaction soon evaporated as the route became very muddy (largely because it has clearly been used by horses) and overgrown. 

More by good luck than good judgement we stumbled across a better path, with good views to the east, and lots of bluebells. As we climbed up onto a barrow, we had good views to the north and west too, and we passed a couple of cattle grazing on the reserve.  It was lovely. The footpath eventually crossed the waymarked orange route, and we turned right here and returned to the car.

Kingcombe Meadows Orange Trail, about 1.4 miles of walking, 46 minutes

After returning to Pound Cottage for a cup of tea, we set off for our final walk of the day, the longer Orange walk as described on the leaflet about the Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve. After parting company with the Purple route, the Orange trail followed a boardwalk for a while. A sign at the end of the boardwalk indicated that the next section was muddy, and the sign wasn’t wrong! However, we were initially by an absolutely delightful meandering section of the River Hooke (formerly known as the River Toller). The next bit was difficult – we had to cut across the field and it was all rather squishy; we found a way through in the end and climbed up across the next field to a road. After a little dog-leg, we climbed again across a sheep field, with good if slightly misty views. 

Eventually we descended along a field boundary to Mary’s Well Lane, the route of the Wessex Ridgeway by which we had left Lower Kingcombe back in 2014. Then I described it as more stream than track. It wasn’t too bad today and it was nice to be revisiting an earlier walk, if only briefly. There were bluebells alongside the lane and also a particularly attractive bracket fungus at one point.

Following leg of Jubilee Trail