Dog-friendly walks in Bridport

Colmer’s Hill from Symondsbury

The 2.6-mile village stroll behind Bridport, an hour and a quarter, up the little pine-topped cone that appears on every Dorset postcard and back through the hollow ways of the Symondsbury estate. Two short steep pulls on grass, otherwise farm track and lane, and the sunken lanes hold water for weeks after rain. Start from the Symondsbury Estate car park by the Ilchester Arms, free for visitors to the estate and about thirty spaces, filling at weekends when the kitchen is busy; this is working farmland with sheep on the hill and cattle in the valley, so leads throughout, and there is a water bowl outside the estate shop.