Theme for the Week – Dorset in Spring Part 1

– – – Exploring The Countryside and Lanes of Dorset – – –

It’s Sunday and time for a new theme again for this coming week and I thought we would have a celebration of spring as captured on my recent walks. This week I sat on a high hilltop on a beautiful day overlooking an amazing view and across the valley came that sound which heralds in the spring, the sound of the cuckoo! So it is official now, spring is here, and nothing typifies spring like a field of bright yellow oil seed rape! So today we visit King Down.

King Down

King Down is a few miles north west of Wimborne, not far from the Badbury Rings Hill Fort. It is not high at all but there are still lovely views all around, and invariably you walk to the accompaniment of skylarks. There are two well preserved round barrows at the top of the down but others that once stood around them have disappeared, possibly because of farming. The reason for their presence is the nearby Roman Road and Hill Fort. This was once an ancient cemetery.

It is interesting to compare two similar pictures taken just a week or two apart. In the bottom picture, the flowers are sparse but just a short time later after the sun has warmed up a little, the crop is in full glory.

It is also interesting to compare paths. On King Down, the path through the rape field is broad and easy to walk but later that day, I would be walking through the rape field that you see in the far distance and there, the path was narrow. You might wonder why this makes a difference but it does! As I walked through the later field, I was constantly brushing up against rape flowers on both sides as I squeezed through, being coated in a copious dusting of golden pollen and also a layer of what seemed like sap. For a hay fever sufferer, this would have been awful! For me it was just a nuisance and in fact I was more concerned about the very fine pollen getting into the camera.

So what makes the difference in the width of the paths? Well I believe it is horses. Which leads me on to another subject – horses, and riders of course, are both a blessing and a curse to walkers. In winter if you walk a bridle way, you are likely to find yourself walking in thick mud as the hooves churn up the wet ground. This doesn’t make for easy walking. But in summer, those same horses have the effect of keeping many paths clear of wild plants such as stinging nettles which would otherwise overgrow the paths. And of course, the ground is dry so the hooves don’t have the same effect on the ground as in winter.

Anyway, back to our walk through King Down 🙂 ! It is a truly lovely place and although it is not in any way remote, it feels remote, and that makes it a great place to walk. It is much quieter than the more popular paths at Badbury Rings, and there is nothing better than to sit atop one of the barrows and just drink in the sea of spring yellow at your feet whilst listening to the skylark overture. Just wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,
Your friend The Dorset Rambler

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.