ミルボーンセントアンドリューの天然記念物・トップ8

The ‘Dish’ is a ‘swallet’ (sinkhole) about 90m in diameter, 40m deep with steep sides. It was named after the herbalist Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654). It is impossible to photograph it in entirety due to the size of the mature trees growing in it! Swallet holes, or dolines, are circular depressions formed when the underlying chalk is dissolved by the overlying acid sands and gravels which eventually collapse to form an inverted cone.

Trig pillar ‘Woolsbarrow Camp’

Once you're at this well-known junction, also known as the Dorsetshire Gap, it doesn't matter which direction you head because the landscape in this area is breathtaking.

Right next to the Wessex Ridgeway, near the Dorset Gap, you can see this square earthwork, approximately 25 meters in length on each side and 1 meter above the flat ground.

The Dorsetshire Gap is a very atmospheric location, very easy to imagine Medieval traders passing through it. Be aware that the bridleways too and from it are tough, the tracks marked on the maps may not exist on the ground, cycling can be hard an slow, Still worth a visit.

A square earthwork, about 25m each side, a raised bank about 1m above the flat surrounding ground, immediately adjacent to the Wessex Ridgeway. The reason for the earthworks has not yet been determined.

Woolsbarrow Hillfort is located in a clearing in the forests of Bloxworth Heath. The nearest town is Bere Regis, about 3+1⁄4 miles (5.2 km) to the west-northwest of the hillfort. The heath is a popular walking area and the site can be reached by public footpath. Woolsbarrow is a slight univallate hillfort on a flat-topped knoll on the plateau of Bloxworth Heath, which separates the rivers Sherford to the east and Piddle to the west. The hillfort is marked by a single rampart about 20 feet (6.1 m) below the top of the gravel knoll and covers an area of around 2+1⁄4 acres (0.91 ha). The eastern part of the hillfort has been damaged by sand and gravel extraction, but much of it survives well and has the potential for further archaeological evidence to be uncovered. It is one of only about 150 slight univallate hillforts nationally and is of national importance.

Dating back to the 9th-5th centuries BC, this relatively low-lying hillfort rises out of Bloxworth Heath. The heath itself has plenty of hiking trails criss-crossing it as well as an abundance of insect, bird and wildlife. There's a trig pillar on top of the fort, at 220 feet (67 m) and if you ramble about the fort a little, you'll find interesting views of the undulating heathland.