Walk · Dorset

Hamworthy beach to Rockley Point

Poole

4MILES

2hON FOOT

20mCLIMB

Out & backSHAPE

Off-road 75% 25% shares tarmac with cars

Field & moor path 55%Lane & track 20%Road with traffic 25%

Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill. Off-lead information here is what walkers reported or what signage allows — never our advice. Whether and when a dog is off the lead is the owner’s decision and legal responsibility; keep dogs under control near livestock and follow signs on the day.

Starts at

Hamworthy Park free car park, Blandford Road, Hamworthy

Parking

Free council car park, roughly 80 spaces, full on hot afternoons and at weekends; on-street parking nearby is residents-permit in places

Directions to the start →

A four-mile there-and-back along the northern shore of Poole Harbour, two hours, flat on a mix of promenade, shore path and shingle, out past Lake Pier to the low sandy point at Rockley with Brownsea across the water. Park at Hamworthy Park, a free council car park of about eighty spaces off Blandford Road, which fills on hot afternoons because this is a local secret. Hamworthy beach is one of the handful of BCP beaches where dogs are allowed all year round, which is the whole point of coming: sheltered shallow water for swimming in any month, no summer exclusion, and leads only on the promenade section. There is a drinking tap by the park toilets.

THE SMALL PRINTHamworthy beach is listed by BCP as open to dogs all year round, with no 1 May to 30 September exclusion. Dogs must still be on a lead on the promenade, footpaths and zig zags under the BCP dog control order.

House rules, decoded

Off-lead allowed

REGION · DORSET

GRID · 50.7130, -2.0030

SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.BCPCOUNCIL.GOV.UK/BEACHES-AND-SEAFRONT/WHAT-YOU-NEED-TO-KNOW-BEFORE-VISITING-ONE-OF-OUR-BEACHES/WHERE-AND-WHEN-YOU-CAN-BRING-YOUR-DOG-TO-THE-BEACH

Hamworthy beach to Rockley Point

House rules, decoded

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