Walk · Dorset

Thorncombe Wood and Hardy’s Cottage

Dorchester · DT2 8QJ

2.4MILES

1h 15mON 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 70%Lane & track 25%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

Free Thorncombe Wood car park, Cuckoo Lane, Higher Bockhampton DT2 8QJ

Parking

Free, about 40 spaces with toilets and an information hut; full on Sunday afternoons and the lane in is single track

Directions to the start →

An easy 2.4-mile hour and a quarter through oak and hazel woodland to the cob and thatch cottage where Thomas Hardy was born, out onto Black Heath and back past Rushy Pond, with 90 metres of climb on woodland paths and boardwalk. Sheltered, shaded and good in bad weather, though the lower paths hold mud into May. Start at the free Thorncombe Wood car park off the lane from Higher Bockhampton, about forty spaces with a small visitor hut and toilets, and it does fill on Sunday afternoons. Dogs are welcome off lead in the wood under close control, on leads in the cottage garden, and the heath section has ground-nesting birds in spring; Rushy Pond is the only water and is shallow and boggy at the edge.

THE SMALL PRINTDogs must be on leads in the garden at Hardy’s Cottage and are not admitted inside the cottage itself. Black Heath holds ground-nesting birds in spring and early summer, so leads on the open heath section.

House rules, decoded

Off-lead allowed

REGION · DORSET

GRID · 50.7213, -2.3808

SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.NATIONALTRUST.ORG.UK/VISIT/DORSET/WALKING

Thorncombe Wood and Hardy’s Cottage

House rules, decoded

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