Dewlands common, Verwood.

A pretty walk over both parts of Dewlands common. Takes around 40 minutes to 1 Hour. Easy. Start at Emmanuel middle school, Howe Lane. Walk down the unmade part of Margards lane to reach Horton Lane. Continue on until you reach the common and take the path leading south to your left. This path reaches a boardwalk and then after passing through a gated area continue down across this open area to reach the woods. (children love to make camps here with sticks or play hide and seek). Turn right and take the path through the little wood, then left onto the bridleway. As the path bears right continue up the side of the common on this bridleway. If wet you may rather rejoin the common path as the bridleway can be muddy. Continue north up the lane, passed a horse field to reach the second part of the common. Go through the gate and to your left is a small pond. This is a great spot for children to enjoy pond dipping (good half term activity but don't forget to put any little newts or insects back in the pond after you have looked at them, try taking a book with you top identify the creatures that they find, guaranteed to be a winner and free too). Now continue on the path to reach the gate and turn right. You can either go through the housing estate to reach Margards Lane or continue on to return to the lane once again where you turn left to return.

Dewlands common, Verwood.

Dewlands common this afternoon. The clouds were building but fortunately it didn't rain.

Dewlands common puddle walk.

Chloe and I walked Phoebe on Dewlands common. We jumped in the puddles, claimed all 10 foot of Mount Chloe, listened to the sheep and buzzards and looked out for father Christmas who appeared both stuck in a tree and inside one!

Dewland Common

Dewlands common for a early winter's afternoon walk. It's not all grey at the moment, lots of lovely yellow gorse out. I always seem to meet a few Verwoodians out with their dogs and it's always great to have a chat while the dogs play.

Dewlands common, a puddle walk.

A puddle walk with my granddaughter and Phoebe the dog. That's two day's without rain!

Dewlands common, south

Dewlands common for a rather wet walk with Phoebe. It's still pretty about with lots of lovely colours in the gorse and bracken.

Dewlands common

Dewlands common. Always a lovely place for a walk with you family or dogs. My family went there today with our dog we had our granddaughter in her pushchair as she was a little under the weather, it was rather difficult getting the pushchair up into the common from the bottom end, but no problem from the top.

Horton common.

Horton Common. About 1.30H to 2H. From Emmanuel Middle School continue towards Dewlands common but turn left before and walk down the road to pass under the old railway bridge. Now continue straight up the hill on the middle bridleway.

Continue on up to the top of the hill, pass the solar farm and turn left onto the wide track. keeping on the wide track miss the first left and take the second left, always keeping the solar farm to your left. Continue pass the solar farm once again, soon you will pass through an area of woodland to your left and fields to your right.

At the house take the path to your left which runs beside the route of the old railway bed. The path now passes through woodland and common land. It can sometimes be very wet and muddy up here so wear fully waterproof shoes.

Now the path descends down to meet the junction where you went uphill. Turn right here and pass Bridge farm once again. After passing under the bridge turn left onto a small bridleway running beside the route of the old railway once again.

After a while you can access Dewlands common through a gap in the wooden fence. If you do follow the path to reach the tarmac path and follow it to the left. Otherwise continue on the bridleway turning right at the end.

This will finally reach the Margards lane/Dewlands Road junction. This is a lovely country route with fine views across to the New Forest, Bournemouth and up towards Edmondson, the only difficulty can be the mud and water. It's not particularly bad at the moment but there are a couple of parts of the route that have a lot of surface water.