Beneath the Feet of Cerne's Giant

Al Rodger

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The walk starts and ends in the centre of Cerne Abbas, giving walkers the chance to explore this historic village.

Ascending the side of the Giant Hill, Little Minterne Hill ridge provides the first views of the sleepy Dorset countryside. The walk then descends to Minterne Magna with its pretty church and its manor-house gardens open to the public in summer.

Climbing again over the hill to Up Cerne and then onto Seldon Hill and the Wessex Ridgeway, more views await the walker. Descending from Weam Common Hill, the best views of the giant can be had just a short way off the route. The walk returns to Cerne Abbas via the official viewpoint.

Cattle hooves make parts of the walk muddy in all but the driest of weather, which can be extreme between Waymarks 13 and 14 after wet spells.

England - South West England - Dorset - Countryside

Features

Church, Great Views, Hills or Fells, National Trust, Pub, Toilets, Wildlife

6/19/2019 - Jenny Bassett

Enjoyed this walk on a dry day so no mud thankfully. A couple of points for other walkers to bear in mind though. Point 5 refers to walking for 300 yards but omits that after the 300 yards one goes through the wooden gate and continues until the field and gate at point 6. At point 8, the instructions say to turn Right at the tree line and followed the track down to the road, but it should be Left. Reading earlier comments I think the walk may have been altered at this point but this instruction wasn't changed. We had fun walking through the field at point 10 as it was planted with oil seed rape that was 5 foot high and no path to be seen! All in all a very nice walk with some hills to get your heart working and capped with a good view of the giant. My tracker clocked it at 9.5 miles with a bit of backtracking at points 8 and 10.

5/29/2010 - Adrian Perkins

Our thanks to David Waller for his updates for this walk. May 2010. Adrian (Admin).

5/29/2010 - David Waller

26/05/10 Dave Waller. Did walk on dry day so OK, except step 2 keep to LHS of field as there are 3 stiles on N side of this field, LHS was obscured by horses in fenced off area so missed correct stile and went round in circles! Otherwise nice walk on a sunny day.

6/2/2009 - David Chudley

We did walk 388 at the end of May 2009 and the bridleway at step 7/8 has been moved. You now have to cross the road and follow the new bridleway signs by the side of the car park. This does a right then left turn, passes though a small wood area and onto a track that runs up the hill pass to the north edge of the 'T' shaped wood and on to a tree lined path. Turn left and after about third of a mile you join the walk at point 8.

1/30/2009 - Paul Finch

I know we walked this in Janurary BUT it was very very muddy! 60%+ of the walk was muddy!

10/8/2007 - kendrick anne

This is a lovely walk but there is now a wire fence across the path at point 5, when you need to go across Little Minterne Hill so unless you like walking on a busy road (quite tricky with a dog) be prepared to back track. October 8th 2007

12/31/2005 - Robin Philpott

I did this walk on 28 December 2005. A lovely walk through very pretty countryside. Quite muddy in places, especially where cattle use the paths, and the instructions as written are very ambiguous in places so it is easy to lose the route. One for a dry clear day or when the ground is frozen hard.