Worth Matravers to Corfe Castle

NEAREST LOCATION

Corfe Castle

RECOMMENDED BY
DISTANCE

9 miles (14.5kms)

ASCENT
1083ft (330m)
TIME
3hrs 45min
GRADIENT
DIFFICULTY
Hard
STARTING POINT
SY974776

About the walk

Worth Matravers is a picturesque village of lichen-encrusted grey cottages. Men from here have worked the nearby quarries for centuries, and local stone was used to build Salisbury Cathedral. By contrast, the huge and toothy ruin of Corfe Castle seems to fill the gap in the wall of the Purbeck Hills with its presence. It stands on a high mound, and must have been massively imposing when whole. The castle has a grim history. In ad 978 a youthful King Edward (the Martyr) was murdered here while visiting his stepmother, Elfthryth. His body was buried without ceremony at Wareham, while his half-brother took the throne as Ethelred II. However, stories of miracles occurring soon resulted in Edward’s body being exhumed and transported to Shaftesbury, where an abbey grew up in his honour. His sacred relics were recovered in 1931 and reburied, incredibly, in Brookwood Cemetery, to the west of London.

The Normans realised the commanding role a castle could play in defence at Corfe, and built the big square keep around 1106. King John starved 22 French noblemen to death in the dungeons here in 1204 and used it as a lifelong prison for his niece Eleanor, a potential threat to his throne. The unfortunate Edward II, deposed by his wife Isabella and her favourite, Roger de Mortimer, was also imprisoned here briefly. The castle again came to the fore during the Civil War. Its owner, Sir John Bankes, having sought and failed to make peace between factions, sided with the King. However, it was his wife Mary who was left, with a handful of women and just five men, to fight off a siege in 1642, when a 500-strong Parliamentarian army reached Corfe Castle. Despite reinforcements, they failed to take the castle. After a second, more sustained siege, the castle was betrayed in 1646 by one of its defenders and Lady Bankes was forced to give it up. The castle was destroyed to prevent its further use. Close up, the sagging towers of the gatehouse and the crazy angle of the outer walls give the impression they were blown up only days ago.

Walk directions

Turn down the street for 80yds (75m) then right, up a path by a fingerpost signed ‘Hill Bottom’. Turn left through the first of three gates, walking behind the village. Turn right at another fingerpost (‘Hill Bottom’), up to cross the wall and continue down the next field. At the bottom bear left over the stile, walking down a narrow cutting to cross a stile at its foot.

Turn right on the Purbeck Way. Ignore a left fork to continue on the main track. The path runs up the valley, bending left as the valley divides. It turns right, then gently uphill (north). Go through the gateway at the top, ahead on a track. Go through a field gate to pass to the left of a farm to the road. Cross into the track opposite, signed ‘Purbeck Way’. As the track bends right, take the second path on the left, passing through a kissing gate. Continue down the left edges of three fields, left across a footbridge and back right. Pass through a gate, a copse and another gate, cross a boardwalk and two footbridges. Bear half left at a fingerpost (‘Corfe Castle’) to cross a further footbridge. Stay left as a wider grassy path comes in from the right and walk to the road.

Cross to a track on the other side. Bear round to the right behind houses to a gate. Follow the path towards the village centre. Head along a cul-de-sac, cross a road and head along an alleyway. Turn right, through a gate, and cross fields into a playground. Turn left, then right into West Street to the square.

At the castle entrance turn left on the path below the walls. Go left up the road and in 160yds (150m) left again through a kissing gate into fields. Cross them (southeast) over a pair of footbridges, to a car park. Bear right, then right again into West Street. At its end, go straight on over a cattle grid. Bear left (south) on a path across the heath with a view of Kingston and its church up ahead. Cross duckboards and go uphill, bearing right off the main path at a National Trust post signed ‘Kingston’. Turn right at a T-junction then take the first left to cross the crest to the right of a stone block. Following another NT signpost (‘Kingston’ again), head down to a hidden gate. After two footbridges, slant up and left to a hedge gap, then carry on over the next field to a gate, footbridge and duckboards beside the stream. Continue straight uphill, emerging from woods into a field. Carry on uphill, over two stiles as you cross a track. Above the next field, join an earth track below Kingston’s first houses.

Take the earth track up to the right. Immediately after a track junction, turn left, up through trees, then left at the top to a road. Turn right, soon taking the track on the left, signed ‘Houns Tout’. Follow this for 1.5 miles (2.5km) to the sea, and left along cliff tops. Descend steps, then cross a stile at the bottom. Head inland to a road. Turn right and follow it to its end, bearing left on a track signed ‘Coast Path’. Beside Hill Bottom Cottage bear right. Carry on for 150yds (140m) until the road swings right, and turn left up Hill Bottom. After 0.25 miles (400m) turn right over a stile; retrace your steps to the car park.

Additional information

Village lanes, rocky lanes (slippery after rain), moorland tracks, grassy paths, steep cliff path with steps

Fields and tracks, path, coastal path

Good, though some stiles challenging. On lead in Worth Matravers (free-range poultry) and in pasture around Corfe and Kingston

OS Explorer OL15 Purbeck & South Dorset

Car park just north of Worth Matravers

At car park and at Corfe Castle by car park

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WALKING IN SAFETY

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

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About the area

Discover Dorset

Dorset means rugged varied coastlines and high chalk downlands. Squeezed in among the cliffs and set amid some of Britain’s most beautiful scenery is a chain of picturesque villages and seaside towns. Along the coast you’ll find the Lulworth Ranges, which run from Kimmeridge Bay in the east to Lulworth Cove in the west. Together with a stretch of East Devon, this is Britain’s Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, noted for its layers of shale and numerous fossils embedded in the rock. Among the best-known natural landmarks on this stretch of the Dorset coast is Durdle Door, a rocky arch that has been shaped and sculpted to perfection by the elements. The whole area has the unmistakable stamp of prehistory.

Away from Dorset’s magical coastline lies a landscape with a very different character and atmosphere, but one that is no less appealing. Here, winding, hedge-lined country lanes lead beneath lush, green hilltops to snug, sleepy villages hidden from view and the wider world. The people of Dorset are justifiably proud of the achievements of Thomas Hardy, its most famous son, and much of the county is immortalised in his writing. 

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