Tollard Royal

Bordering on Dorset, this tranquil corner of south Wiltshire lies in the heart of Cranborne Chase, an undulating tract of chalk downland with breezy ridges and secluded dry valleys or 'bottoms' – one of which hides the village of Tollard Royal. This spectacular walk leads you around the rolling parkland of the Rushmore Estate, formerly the home of the 19th-century archaeologist and ethnologist General Pitt-Rivers, and offers you the option to ascend Win Green Hill, one of the highest points in Wiltshire at 911ft (278m).

A royal forest

Tangled copses and a belt of woodland are all that remain of the great forest that covered an area of some 90sq miles (233sq km). The oldest part, with hunting rights dating back to the time of King John (1167–1216), is centred around Tollard Royal. King John hunted on the Chase and owned a small estate at Tollard, hence the 'Royal' in the village name. His lodge was on the site now occupied by King John's House, an elegant Elizabethan manor house near the church. By the 18th century, the forest had become a refuge for poachers, smugglers and vagabonds, and violent, often murderous, disputes arose continually between them and the keepers of the forest. After hunting rights ended in 1828, Lord Rivers destroyed much of the ancient forest, reducing it to more manageable proportions.

The 'Father of English Archaeology'

General Augustus Pitt-Rivers (1827–1900) inherited the Rushmore Estate in 1880. Winning his rank during the Crimean War, he found fame as a scientist and archaeologist and devoted the last 20 years of his life to excavating archaeological sites on the estate, resulting in five volumes of notes and sketches. He built a private museum in Farnham, 3 miles (4.8km) away, to house his models and local collections. The museum was open every day, free of charge, and visited by thousands of people a year. It closed in the 1960s and most of the exhibits went to Oxford University, although you can see scale models, drawings and artefacts in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum in Salisbury. Pitt-Rivers died at Rushmore in 1900 and you will find a memorial to the family in St Peter ad Vincula Church in Tollard Royal. As you skirt Rushmore Park on your walk, you will glimpse his former home, Rushmore Lodge, through the trees.

Facing the pond, turn left along the metalled track and take the waymarked path right across the footbridge to a stile. Follow the narrow path half left uphill through scrub. Go through a gate at the top corner and along the left-hand field-edge. Keep ahead, pass a copse, and bear left through gates into the adjacent field. Keep to the right-hand edge, following a line of electricity poles downhill to a gate and stile.

Bear diagonally left and steeply descend to a gate and junction of paths in the valley bottom. Take the track right, through a gate and continue to a fork of tracks. Steeply ascend the grassy track ahead and follow it beside woodland for 0.5 miles (800m). Bear right through trees to a metalled lane.

Turn right, then left before the gates to Rushmore Park. Keep to the established track, with cameo views across the park, heading gently downhill to a crossing of paths by the golf course.

Turn right, pass in front of a cottage and keep to the path alongside the fairway (do not follow the track right) until you reach redundant stone gate posts. Pass beside the gate posts and keep ahead, soon passing a pond and bearing left beside the woods on your right.

Bear right through a gate into the woodland and follow the yellow waymarker sharp right through the trees. At first ill-defined, the path soon bears left to become a clear route (yellow arrows) through Brookes Coppice, to reach a T-junction with a track.

Turn left, cross the drive and stile diagonally opposite to the right, and bear slightly left downhill to a gate in the field corner. In a few paces, take the second arrowed path sharp right.

Follow the track through Tinkley Bottom to a gate and pass below Rushmore Farm. On passing through the second of two gateways, turn immediately left and walk uphill to a pair of gates. Go through the left-hand gate and follow the wire fence on your right through two paddocks to reach a small steel gate.

Take the path ahead and bear diagonally right downhill to a gate and the B3081. Keep ahead into Tollard Royal back to the pond and your car.