Blandford Forum to Stourpaine (and Shillingstone)

If you want to read my description of our whole walk on 13th May 2014, click here. However, for completeness, what follows is a description of just the part of that walk from Blandford Forum to Shillingstone. I'm writing it up in 2023, because where we walked is now part of the White Hart Link, whilst also being (as it was then),  on the North Dorset Trailway. Back in May 2014, we'd travelled to Blandford Forum the day before and stayed overnight in a superb B&B. There is no point in giving further details here about the place where we stayed,  because it is no longer doing B&B.  Sadly, we realised some time ago that B&Bs come and go with surprising frequency, and the Pandemic can't have helped. 

After buying lunch at a bakers on the Market Place, we headed north and slightly east along Salisbury Road. This took us over the former railway line, now the North Dorset Trailway, slightly north of the former Blandford station. Steps took us down to  join the Trailway and we headed out of the town.  Although the trailway had a hard surface, not my favourite thing, it was tree-lined and, at this time of year, formed a delightfully green corridor. There were good views to Bryanston School, up on a cliff on the other side of the river. 

The next landmark was Durweston Church (which we took a closer look at when returning from a leg of the Jubilee Trail in 2023). We were approaching Stourpaine, which is just on the opposite side of the valley, and in fact the old railway line would have passed between the two villages. However, our route left the railway track and heading into Stourpaine. I'm not sure whether this is because the track isn't passible, or maybe just because they just want to show Stourpaine off. It's certainly a pretty place, with an impressive church and lots of thatch. 

The anticlockwise route of the White Hart Way continues on through Stourpaine before heading north to Shroton and eventually to Shaftesbury, However, when on our walk in 2014, we turned left to return to the old railway. This crossed the River Stour, before continuing on through more attractive countryside to Shillingstone, where the Wessex Ridgeway crosses the onward route of the West Dorset Trailway and the clockwise route around the White Hart Link. 

Following leg (from Stourpaine)