Cranborne Droves Way
The Cranborne Droves Way begins at Win Green, where it links with the Wessex Ridgeway and ends at Salisbury, where it links with the Sarsen Way. It follows two old droving routes - the Ox Drove and the Old Shaftesbury Drove – and a Roman Road. Its rich history stems from the use of these droving routes for centuries to move livestock between different regions. ​
​
Much of the Cranborne Droves Way trail lies within the Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs AONB. Most of the AONB is farmland. Half of this area is cropped and about a third is grazed, the rest is mostly woodland and set aside land. The trail is mainly across open, rolling downland, with visible evidence of ancient earthworks - tumuli and burial mounds - as well as past agriculture in strip lynchets below Throope Hill. A strip lynchet is a medieval form of agricultural terracing.
​
The first 9 miles of the trail are along the Ox Drove. At Knighton Wood the Ox Drove intersects with an old Roman road. This road ran from a camp at Vindocladia (Badbury Rings near Wimborne) to Sorviodunum (Old Sarum in Salisbury). The trail follows the course of the Roman road more or less for almost 5 miles as far as Salisbury Racecourse where it joins the Old Shaftesbury Drove for a little less than 1 mile. The remainder of the trail heads through the streets of Salisbury before finishing at the Cathedral.
The trail is officially 16.5 miles end to end although in practice it's a little longer than this. A look at the elevation chart shows that from west to east the trail is more or less going downhill the whole way, starting at Win Green at 912 feet and finishing at Salisbury Cathedral at 147 feet.
​
