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Witchampton Mill Walk

3.98 miles (6.4 km)

Ordnance Survey Map Open Streetmap This walk visits the historic Witchampton Mill before exploring the countryside surrounding the village of Witchampton near Wimborne in Dorset.
On the way you'll enjoy views of the River Allen and skirt the edge of Crichel Park which lies just to the east of the settlement. The walk uses a mixture of public footpaths, bridleways and country lanes with a woodland section near the lake. There's also a section along the Hardy Way long distance footpath.
It's a very picturesque area with lots of quaint thatched cottages in Witchampton and the neighbouring settlement of New Town. There's also a 15th century church to see near the start of the walk.
To extend the walk head south to visit King Down, Badbury Rings, Kingston Lacy and Pamphill.

Postcode

BH21 5AP - Please note: Postcode may be approximate for some rural locations

Witchampton OS Map Ordnance survey map - Mobile GPS OS Map with Location tracking

Witchampton Open Street Map Open Streetmap - Mobile GPS Map with Location tracking

Further Information and Other Local Ideas

To the north you will find the Dorset Cursus an ancient Neolithic earthwork on Wyke Down. There's some fine views over the countryside of the Cranborne Chase AONB to enjoy from here.

Photos

The Watermill - Witchampton - geograph.org.uk - 600191

The Watermill - Witchampton. This early C19 watermill is a detached building, separate from the mill house which is to the right. Traces of where the giant water wheel was positioned can clearly be seen on the wall. Like its neighbour, the building is Grade II Listed.

River Allen, Witchampton - geograph.org.uk - 1938057

River Allen, Witchampton

Witchampton, cottages - geograph.org.uk - 539983

Two attractive thatched cottages on the inside of the bend in the road, opposite the churchyard entrance.

Thatched cottage in New Town - geograph.org.uk - 466231

Thatched cottage in New Town

Abbey House, Witchampton - geograph.org.uk - 1939318

Abbey House, Witchampton

Footpath in Crichel Park - geograph.org.uk - 466323

 Footpath in Crichel Park. The footpath takes walkers through the park to Didlington Farm.

River Allen, Crichel Estate - geograph.org.uk - 466334

River Allen, Crichel Estate

St Marys, St Cuthberga and All Saints, Witchampton - geograph.org.uk - 1285720

St Marys, St Cuthberga and All Saints. The tower is 15th century and the rest of the church was rebuilt between 1832-40. The architect unknown. The tower walls are of ironstone and greensand banding and the rest of church if of ashlar and flint banding.

Video

GPS Files

GPX File

Witchampton.gpx (On Desktop:Right Click>Save As. On Ipad/Iphone:Click and hold>Download Linked File)