This is a lovely woodland walk at any time of year, but if you’re looking for a Dorset bluebells walk, then this is the one to do when the bluebells are in bloom – I promise you won’t regret it.
Parking is simple in Winterborne Stickland – there’s plenty of roadside parking in the village, but do be considerate to residents. The route itself is very easy to follow, with a few sharp hills, but nothing too long or too arduous. It is also endlessly adaptable – the woods are criss-crossed with tracks, and it’s a simple matter of choosing a different path if you want a different length route.
Dorset is spoiled for choice when it comes to seeing bluebells – the rural heart of the county has them flashing their rich blue from every copse of ancient woodland, with swathes of them coating much of our countryside. However, many are in smaller copses – worth a visit, of course, but they do not a decent walk make. So we set out to plan a route inside a large, ancient forest, allowing for as much of it as possible to have a good chance of seeing the famous English woodland’s spring carpet. And having walked it at the start of the bluebell season in early April, we can confirm: at a guess, around 80% of this Dorset bluebells walk you’ll be utterly surrounded by a deep, sweeping scented blue. Every turn, every stretch of woodland will have that long endless expanse of hyacinth stretching away among the dark trunks and splashes of fresh acid green of new spring leaves on the beech trees.
And on the bit where it’s not present, wild garlic takes over and provides an endless snowy alternative.
One small warning, however – if you are walking this when the bluebells are out, expect to take much longer than you normally would.
Unless, of course, you’re dead inside, and won’t enjoy simply standing and staring and breathing in the heady scent of the Dorset bluebells, or taking endless photographs as you desperately try (and fail) to capture their magic on your phone.
See all previously-published Dorset Walks by The BV here. You can also find every route we’ve walked (including many which are unpublished in The BV) on OutdoorActive here (just zoom in/out on the map) – all include a downloadable gpx file.
