On Foot
On Foot
RIGHTS OF WAY Emma Tabor and Paul Newman
W
e’re taking a break from writing a walk this month as we plan for the rest of the year. It seems like a good time to reflect on the ground we’ve covered so far and some of the challenges we encounter as we write these walks. West Dorset has some fantastic and varied walking terrain and good routes along the South West Coast Path as well as other established trails such as the Monarch’s Way, Macmillan Way and Jubilee Trail. However, some less well-used paths can sometimes be difficult to make out so we thought it would be useful to share what you should do if faced with an unclear route or problem. For this, we’re referring to the Rights of Way leaflet produced by Dorset Council. Each month we devise a walk from scratch. As we plan what we hope will make an interesting route, we try and anticipate if any path or route might be problematic. Working to a monthly schedule leaves little or no time to reconfigure the walk if it doesn’t work out as planned. So far, we’ve been fairly lucky, but one of the things that sometimes causes an issue is establishing the right of way. This can be caused by stiles in a poor state of repair or stiles that are overgrown, missing signage, electric fences, obstructions and re-routed paths. >
62 | Sherborne Times | March 2022
