Cribyn & N escarpment
from Pen y Fan104 The Great Outdoors July 2019
of sheep once walked to
market and cohorts of Roman
legionaries marched from one
windswept camp and another.
Today, instead of Bronze Age
cattle or Civil War cavalry units
tramping through the deep
cloying mud of winter, radial
tyres slice puddles across linear
acres of uniform tarmac.
Heading away from Win
Green, Ox Drove represents
one of those old thoroughfares,
a track that by some slight
of chance didn’t end up on a
modern road atlas... at least
not all of it. Still used by
farmers, walkers, horse riders
and off-road motorcyclists,
the remaining sections of
unimproved byway provide
an evocative remnant of these
important ridgeline highways.
And if one ancient ridge
route isn’t enough, once across
the broad rolling valley to
either side of the infant River
Ebble, we have a second. TheOld Shaftesbury Drove, or at
least part of it, forms the return
leg, offering extensive views
out over the Nadder Valley
beyond, and south-west to that
distinctive clump of trees sat
high at the end of our walk.
As the rhythmic scrunch of
Vibram soles over shattered
flints sets in, you can almost
hear those ancient cattle
hoofs, horseshoes and studded
sandals tramping with you
across the hills.Further information
Maps: OS 1:25,000
Explorer sheet 118
(Shaftesbury & Cranborne
Chase)Transport: Nearest bus
is at Berwick St John- Wheeler’s Travel service 29
(02380 471800)
i
Information:Cranborne
Chase AONB Office,
Wimborne (01725 517417) or
ccwwdaonb.org.uk[Captions clockwise from top]
Heading east along Ox Drove;
Dropping down into the Ebble
Valley; The sunken track
dropping to the Ebble valley;
Heading west, and sharing the
Old Shaftsbury Drove