Walk · Dorset

Upton Country Park and Holes Bay

Poole · BH17 7BJ

2.6MILES

1h 15mON FOOT

25mCLIMB

CircularSHAPE

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

Off-road 90% 10% shares tarmac with cars

Field & moor path 45%Lane & track 45%Road with traffic 10%

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

Main Upton Country Park car park, Poole Road, Upton BH17 7BJ

Parking

Charged, with a 24-space dog walkers’ car park off Poole Road giving two hours free; gates locked at 9pm in summer and 6pm in winter, and annual permits are £52

Directions to the start →

A 2.6-mile hour-and-a-quarter loop of parkland, meadow and the shore of Holes Bay, level and largely surfaced, past a Georgian house and out to a shoreline hide with waders on the mud. Park at Upton, gates open 8am to 9pm from April to September and 8am to 6pm in winter, parking charged with annual permits available, plus a dedicated dog walkers’ car park off Poole Road with 24 spaces and two hours free. The park signs its dog rules with coloured paw prints: green for off lead, orange for on lead, red for no dogs at all, with sheep-grazed phase two ground now under a lead order. There is an enclosed dog training area and a play pen for recall work, and the Tea Rooms take dogs on leads.

THE SMALL PRINTZoned by paw-print signs: green routes are off lead, orange are on lead, red areas admit no dogs, which covers the play areas, the back of the house and the walled garden. A PSPO variation requires leads in the phase two area to protect the grazing sheep.

House rules, decoded

Off-lead allowed

Livestock — leads on

REGION · DORSET

GRID · 50.7300, -2.0175

SOURCE · HTTPS://UPTONCOUNTRYPARK.COM/INFORMATION/

Upton Country Park and Holes Bay

House rules, decoded

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