East Dorset: West Moors Group Practice Route 1

Approaching West Moors on the B3072 from Ferndown, enter the village, where the B3072 is called Station Road, and the Group Practice is on your left, immediately after the end of the first run of shops and opposite the library.  From the north, the B3072 comes through West Moors from Verwood.  Although the Group Practice faces Station Road, the entrance is in a short run of shops round the corner on Farm Road.  It is from the Station Road frontage that this walk starts.  There is parking in side roads around.   

By bus, the Yellow 4c runs hourly between Bournemouth and West Moors on weekdays or the Wilts and Dorset X6 travels hourly between Poole, Ferndown, West Moors, Ringwood and Bournemouth on weekdays.  There are several bus stops along Station Road.  

[1] With the surgery frontage on your left, start by walking along Station Road.  Cross over (before Pullman Court on your left) when it is safe to do so with care and continue until you see a patch of bushes in the middle of the pavement ahead of you.  Just before this patch of bushes, turn right into Mary Lane. Follow this lane briefly. Shortly after the lane bears right, go along the alley-way ahead of you, following the sign indicating the Castleman Trailway, (which was built along the path of the old railway line) to reach Arnold Road ahead.  

[2] Turn left along Arnold Close and immediately right, following a small Castleman Trailway sign fixed to a lamp post. At the end of this short road, there is a pair of barriers and a sign indicating the Castleman Trailway.  Pass between the barriers and come out onto a tarmac path, which soon becomes a gravel track. Keep straight along the gravel track until it bends slightly to the right and then left again as it passes a double security fence on your left

A little further on, the track bends round to the right.  Follow round to the right and go through a gap in a fence between some gate posts and turn right fork past a Finger Post on your right. (signed West Moors Plantation and Horses)

[3] Still on a gravel track, go straight through a gap next to a big gate. Keep straight on briefly, passing a large pylon on your left, until the track comes to a T-junction.

[4] Turn right, going past a Forestry Commission sign. You will come out onto Moorlands Road.  Keep straight on crossing Braeside Road at cross roads  and continue to Station Road after perhaps 10 minutes of walking.  Cross over busy Station Road with care. Farm Road and the West Moors Group Practice is straight ahead of you.   

A. The Southampton and Dorchester railway used to run through Ringwood, Verwood, West Moors and Wimborne for many years before first a branch line to Bournemouth was built and then a main line that went from Southampton through Bournemouth to Weymouth.  Many excellent paths for walking and cycling now follow the route of this, railway line, which was closed in 1964.