POWERSTOCK AND EGGARDON HILL

__________

Through hidden valleys to a famous viewpoint

__________

The village of Powerstock lies in an area of rounded hills, deep valleys, and sunken lanes  The houses in this area resemble those of the Cotswolds because they are built of the same stone, the oolitic limestone; but the countryside here is much more beautiful than that of the Cotswolds. There are narrow strips of hazel coppice on the steepest slopes. Hart’s tongue ferns and wild snowdrops grow on the banks of the lanes, and pennywort grows out of crevices in the walls.

A delight of this walk, both at the beginning and towards the end, is the constant chattering of streams in the valleys. Features to look out for are Dorset gates consisting of vertical iron bars set in a wooden framework, and hurdles made entirely of wood, with split hazel rods woven round pointed vertical stakes.

__________

EGGARDON HILL

__________

Rising to the east of this area, and towering over it, is Eggardon Hill (A), its summit encircled by the ramparts of an iron age hill fort. On the north side of the hill there is a narrow lane from which one can look out over an enchanting landscape of pastures, woodlands and overgrown hedges.

The ramparts of the hill fort were constructed in about 50 b.c., and they are much larger and more impressive than those of the older hill-forts on Lambert’s Castle Hill and Pilsdon Pen. From the Ordnance Survey column on a clear day one can see all the way from Dartmoor sixty miles away in the west to the Isle of Wight sixty miles away in the east  In Thomas Hardy’s novel The Trumpet-Major Eggardon Hill is called ‘Haggerdon’. It is now owned by the National Trust.

__________

POWERSTOCK CASTLE

__________

From Eggardon Hill the route descends to a later earthwork, the Norman motte and bailey known officially as Powerstock Castle and unofficially as ‘Humpy Castle’ (B). There is a tradition that King Athelstan had a palace on this site, and King John had a hunting lodge here. The motte was built on the oolitic limestone, and consequently it has been considerably disturbed by quarrying, but this is a small price to pay for the beautiful stone cottages that are found throughout this area.