Walk · Dorset

Hengistbury Head and Mudeford Spit

Bournemouth · BH6 4EN

5.2MILES

2h 45mON FOOT

90mCLIMB

CircularSHAPE

The route A-road B-road Lane Track Path Water Woodland

Off-road 95% 5% shares tarmac with cars

Field & moor path 45%Lane & track 50%Road with traffic 5%

Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and 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

Hengistbury Head car park, Broadway, Southbourne BH6 4EN

Parking

Pay and display, several hundred spaces plus overflow, and the closest thing to reliable summer parking on this coast; the land train to the spit does not carry dogs

Directions to the start →

A 5.2-mile circuit in two and three quarter hours, over Warren Hill to the head, out along the sand spit past the beach huts to the harbour mouth and back on the sheltered Christchurch Harbour side. Surfaced track, sand and grass, with one climb of 90 metres and no shelter on the top. Start at the Hengistbury Head car park off Broadway, pay and display, large, and served by the land train to the spit from April to October, though the train does not take dogs. This is one of the few BCP frontages where dogs are allowed on the beach all year, and Mudeford Sandbank too, but the head is a nature reserve with a March-to-August lead season and grazing cattle, so leads on the top and freedom on the sand.

THE SMALL PRINTBCP lists Hengistbury Head and Mudeford Sandbank as open to dogs all year, unlike the Blue Flag beaches. But the head is a nature reserve inside the March to August dogs-on-lead season, leads no more than 2 metres, and cattle graze the reserve, so dogs must be under close control past stock.

House rules, decoded

Off-lead allowed

Livestock — leads on

REGION · DORSET

GRID · 50.7225, -1.7565

SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.BCPCOUNCIL.GOV.UK/PARKS-NATURE-AND-GREEN-SPACES/FIND-A-PARK-PLAY-AREA-OR-GREEN-SPACE/HENGISTBURY-HEAD

Hengistbury Head and Mudeford Spit

House rules, decoded

1812

29 Spice

7Bone Burger Co.

Dog-friendly cottages you can book

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