Hardy Way
A challenging 217-mile long-distance walk in the West Country weaving through Dorset and Wiltshire, exploring Thomas Hardy’s imagined land of Wessex. With map, statistics, and GPX route file.
Statistics and Files
Grid Ref: SY 728 925
Distance: 217 miles (349 km)
Time: 90–105 hours
Duration: 14–21 days
Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps (1:25,000):
OL15 Purbeck and South Dorset
116 Lyme Regis and Bridport
117 Cerne Abbas and Bere Regis
118 Shaftesbury and Cranborne Chase
129 Yeovil and Sherborne
Summary
The Hardy Way is a long-distance walking route within the counties of Dorset and Wiltshire in south-west England. It is a walk in homage to the writer Thomas Hardy, running through Thomas Hardy’s version of Wessex—the region of the West Country of England portrayed in his books such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far from the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, and others.
The route starts at Hardy Cottage in Higher Bockhampton, where Hardy was born, and finishes at Stinsford churchyard, where Hardy’s heart lies buried. The Hardy Way passes via Puddletown, Briantspuddle, Bere Regis, Bloxworth, East Stoke, Wool, West Lulworth, a stretch of Dorset coastline, Kimmeridge, Kingston, Corfe Castle, Wareham and Wareham Forest, East Morden, Sturminster Marshall, Wimborne Minster, Badbury Rings, Witchampton, Wimborne St Giles, Cranborne, Pentridge, Sixpenny Handley, Tollard Royal, Wimborne Chase, Coombe, Shaftesbury, Todber, Marnhull, Sturminster Newton, Hazelbury Bryan, Plush, Buckland Newton, Balcombe Hill, Redford, Melbury Bubb, Melbury Osmond, Melbury Sampford, Beaminster, Bridport, a further stretch of coastline including Burton Beach and Cogden Beach, West Bexington, Abbotsbury, Portesham, Langton Herring, Chesil Beach, the Isle of Portland and Portland Bill, Weymouth, Owermoigne, West Stafford, and Dorchester.