[1] From car park, turn left and at the roundabout turn right into the main road (Wareham Road). Cross this road and turn left down a footpath just beyond Heckford Rd. Take the narrow path, not the wide access drive! On meeting a road (Hillside Road), turn left and continue along the narrow lane ahead.
[2] When the asphalt temporarily runs out, and just past a sign indicating Hillside Road Nos. 52-58, look for a footpath off to the right. Follow this down to another road (Waterloo Rd). Turn right here and in a couple of hundred yards turn left up a good track with a sign "Badgers Green".
[3] Follow this until you come to a country road (Rushall Lane), where you should turn left. Pass Rushall Park Riding Stables and after a similar distance take a bridleway on your right into a wood.
[4] After about 100 yards turn right at a gate onto a lesser track. A sign board here tells you this is Stony Down Plantation. To follow the correct line of the bridleway, in 150 yards you will spot, on trees on your right, coloured arrows pointing the way you have just come (eyes peeled - the arrows are a bit faint!) and opposite these, on your left, is a path. Follow this path, cross over a good track (in fact the same track you left a few minutes ago) and continue up to a track at a clearing with power lines overhead.
(Alternatively, you can follow the good forestry track all the way from the gate at waypoint [4] to the above-mentioned clearing, where you go straight on to the fork mentioned at waypoint [5])
[5] Turn right here to follow the main track downhill. About 100 yards beyond the clearing, fork left at a junction. A little further on, at the bottom of the gradient, go straight across at a junction of paths and veer gently right. Continue on this path, passing the occasional blue bridleway disc, and it eventually becomes a more defined track with a ditch alongside.
[6] Meet a road and follow it ahead.
Alternative route/short cut reducing the walk length to 5.5 miles. In 50 yards, turn right up a path. Almost immediately, cross a track diagonally right to find a stile. Head diagonally up the field, find another stile in the corner and continue the same line downhill to a road. Take the drive opposite, indicated "Knoll Lane/Silverwood", and go through a metal hand-gate after 50 yards. Reaching Knoll Farm Church, veer right to follow an asphalt drive down to the public highway. Turn left, then in 100 yards right along Haywards Lane. In a few minutes you will come to a T-junction at waypoint [11]. Turn right here to rejoin the main walk.
After about 200 yards, turn left up the drive to Hill View Farm.
[7] Enter the field beside the farmhouse through a gate. Continue through the gate ahead, turn right and go through another gate then aim for the left-hand end of a row of poplars. Cross the stile here and go downhill towards the trees, parallel to a minor power line on your right. Among the trees ahead, find a small bridge and stile and cross into the field on your left. Turn right along the hedge and head for the corner of the field to reach a stile onto the A31. Take care here; although you do not cross the road, it is narrow and busy. 30 yards to your right, you will see the access point for the trailway. (A) This is the line of the Somerset and Dorset railway, which was closed in the 1960s. Follow this for over a mile.
[8] En route, you will pass level crossing gates (now used as private gates but still threatening a 40 shilling fine!) and beyond these, on your left, is the squat tower of a church.
(B) This is St Hubert's, the rather isolated parish church of Corfe Mullen. To visit it, you need to turn left at the level crossing gates.
You eventually emerge on a road (Brog Street). Turn right uphill here and at the first junction, a triangular green, take a footpath left, which soon emerges into a wide private drive. Just beyond, at the road proper, stay ahead (feels like a left), then, as the road bends to the right, a footpath sign after No. 55 points left and takes you into a large recreation ground. Keep ahead and go ahead onto a path.
(C) There are fine views northwards; ahead and slightly left you'll see Wimborne Minster - both the town and the church.
Find a 3-way footpath sign at barrier out of the recreation ground. Veer right here following the main path and turn left when you meet the residential road then immediately right up a cul-de-sac. Continue past the barrier and you will soon be deposited on a main road (Wimborne Road), where you should turn right.
You could catch a bus here to take you back to the roundabout mentioned at waypoint [1].
[9] After about 200 yards, look for a brick-built church on the other side of the road. Cross the road with care and take a footpath left immediately after the church. At the bottom, turn right, cross a footbridge and proceed up to an asphalt road, Merley Park Road. Look right and follow the continuation of your route along the "Bridleway to Upton".
[10] After some 200 yards, opposite a good track going left, turn right to follow an asphalt footpath across a green. Keeping ahead, you will shortly reach a main road (Lockyers Road). Cross with care to go into Field Way opposite, and take the footpath between the houses to another road (Blandford Road). A few yards to your right you will see a signpost pointing left to "Cemetery and Chapel". Turn down here (Newtown Lane), pass the chapel and keep straight on for some distance along this lane, which varies between proper made-up road and rough path (and changes its name, too!)
[11] Pass Haywards Lane (on your right), then at an-end -of-30mph-restriction sign keep ahead on Brook Lane. After the last house, "Kimberley", turn left up a footpath. Coming to a residential road (Chapel Close), keep ahead, turn left into Chapel Lane then soon at a T-junction, turn right into a road (Hillside Road). A short distance ahead, about 100 yards before another end-of-speed-restriction sign, you will see a footpath sign on your left. Go up the steps and along the path. At Wareham Road retrace your route by turning right and then left at the roundabout onto Springdale Road and the car park.