We are the Dorset 4050 Ramblers. We are a friendly, mixed-age group of walkers.
We begin this moderate, circular walk by the church in the centre of Porlock, then leave the village immediately, finding a high path up the beautiful wooded valley known as Hawkcombe. We eventually level out, then cross the A39 on the famously steep Porlock Hill. We edge deep stretches of high woodland that hug the coast here, before turning south, re-crossing the A39 into Hawkcombe Woods and Shillett Combe and breaking out above the treeline into wide expanses of rugged heathland. Topping out at 420 metres we drop past Tarr Ball and finally join the green, lush and hauntingly ancient deciduous stretches of Wilmersham and Horner Woods, following burbling Horner Water all the way down past Packhorse Bridge. A last major climb out of the valley to regain high ground takes us back into Porlock, through a landscape recently transformed by the striking effects of a far-sighted major land restoration project by the National Trust estate.
Booking link: please use the link below to book - or cancel if necessary - a place on this walk.
Toilets: only about three-quarters of the way round at Horner.
Parking: in Porlock village.
Post walk refreshments: for those able to stay on, one of Porlock’s pubs beckons.
Start point: St Dubricius Church, Porlock
