Stour Valley Way
Sixty-four miles along the Dorset Stour, from its source at Stourhead to the sea at Hengistbury Head
Indicative — sampled from open terrain data along the simplified route.
This is the Dorset Stour — the river that rises at Stourhead and flows south-east to the Channel at Christchurch — not the Suffolk, Kent or Worcestershire rivers that share the name. The Stour Valley Way follows it for 64 miles, from the landscaped springs at Stourhead, just inside Wiltshire, down to Hengistbury Head, the headland at the river’s mouth.
For most of its length the way keeps close to the water, through the farmland of the Blackmore Vale and past a string of Dorset towns — Sturminster Newton, Blandford Forum and Wimborne Minster — before reaching Christchurch Harbour at the end. It is mostly low and level walking, but the valley is overlooked by chalk hills and the route climbs some of them: the Iron Age ramparts of Hambledon Hill and Hod Hill above the river in the north, and Hengistbury Head itself at the finish.
The Stour valley has been settled a very long time — the gravels of its lower reaches have yielded huge numbers of Palaeolithic hand-axes — and the walk passes hillforts, old bridges and mills along the way. It is waymarked throughout and, being a valley route, has no severe climbs.
Several of the towns it passes are on bus routes, and the eastern end runs into the edge of the Bournemouth and Christchurch built-up area, so the lower half in particular is easy to reach and to walk in shorter stretches.
