Stage 3 - Beaminster to Maiden Newton - 30th April 2025
- John Tippetts
- May 23
- 5 min read
Updated: May 29
Official Stage Statistics
Route distance – 11.84 miles
Total ascent – 1342 feet
Highest point – 791 feet
Logistics
Drive from Premier Inn Seaton to Bridport & park car DT6 3LL Just Park 6313
Catch CR6 bus from Town Centre BA20 1LT to Beaminster - 07:43 – 24 mins
Walk to Maiden Newton
Catch train from Maiden Newton Station to Weymouth - 13:56 - 30 mins
Catch X53 bus from Weymouth to Bridport – 14:27 – 1 hr 8 mins
Drive to Premier Inn Yeovil Town Centre BA20 1LT & stay overnight
My Walk
For this walk I’d have to be down for brekkie at my home for the last 3 nights by 06:30 in order to get my car packed with all my bits and pieces and then drive the 18 miles to Bridport Bus Station car park in time to catch the 07:43 bus back to Beaminster. I’m pleased to say I made it with 5 minutes to spare.
Most of the walking guides I’d read in the planning stages would have me walk beyond Maiden Newton to Sydling St Nicholas, an extra couple of miles. However, Sydling St Nicholas has no public transport so was not much use to me. On the other hand, Maiden Newton, despite its small size possesses a railway station with trains running in each direction, albeit only every 2 hours. It therefore seemed much more sensible to finish my walk at Maiden Newton.
As the week was progressing it was getting warmer and warmer. As with the first 2 stages, there would be nowhere along the route to top up my supply of water, so once again I was weighed down with water bottles. The walk today would follow an emerging pattern of an initial steep climb followed by a series of ascents and descents before the final descent to the finishing point.
The official route begins with a steep climb to the top of Mintern’s Hill (791 ft / 241 m). It then continues across the ridge through a number of hamlets and small villages before a steady descent into Maiden Newton. I admit to cheating a little at the start and cut off 1 mile by climbing out of Beaminster along the Hardy Trail before joining the Wessex Ridgeway. It was still a very steep climb necessitating numerous stops to ‘admire the views’ as I like to call it (aka ‘catch my breath’).
Having joined the Wessex Ridgeway I continued along a single track lane into the pretty hamlet of Toller Whelme and then on to the village of Hooke. I passed Hooke Court Residential Educational Outdoor Activity Centre - now that's a mouthful!
Beyond Hooke I walked to Rampisham Down (apparently pronounced Ransom Down by locals!) which until 2011 was home to a huge 189 acre radio transmission station for the BBC’s World Service. It had 26 transmitter pylons and 29 antenna arrays suspended between 15 masts ranging from 30m to 100m high. It must have been a sight to see and I would have loved to have seen it. Sadly, the station closed in 2011 and even worse, all but 2 of the transmitter pylons were demolished in 2017. Today 1 of these pylons transmits the TV signal to surrounding villages and the original buildings have been repurposed as Rampisham Business Centre.
Beyond Rampisham came a gentle descent into the hamlet of Lower Kingcombe followed by the inevitable steepish climb. Another gentle descent into the village of Chilfrome and from then on, the path continued in the valley of the River Frome into Maiden Newton where I ended this stage.
Maiden Newton is described as a town-sized village and as mentioned earlier, it has a railway station. It was 13:30 and the next train was due at 13:56, so just time to get a refreshing pint of Guinness 0.0 and a top up of one of my water bottles at the pub. I considered that my cutting off of 1 mile at the start of the walk was justified, as I would otherwise more than likely have had to wait almost 2 hours for the 15:56 train. Good decision! Amazingly, I hadn’t taken any wrong turnings today so I was really happy.
The train from Maiden Newton took me to Weymouth and was timed to connect with the bus back to Bridport. It was a long bus ride but from the top deck there were some fabulous sea views. By the time I reached Bridport I was feeling quite hungry as I’d ditched having a lunchtime sandwich. I popped into Wetherspoons for an early tea.
I then drove to National Trust Golden Cap for a walk to the summit. Julia Bradbury did a lot to promote it with her TV program ‘Best Walks with a View’ in 2016. I’d been there a few years ago but it was on a grey, overcast day. On this early evening in spring it was absolutely gorgeous at the top. I took loads of photos with my ‘real’ camera but somehow managed to delete them all from the SD card when I got home, along with my photos of Seaton. I was really upset to discover what I’d done. Trying various software products to recover the photos resulted in failure. I’ll just have to go back again.
After Golden Cap I said goodbye to the Jurassic Coast and drove the 25 miles to the Yeovil Town Centre Premier Inn where I’d be staying for the next 3 nights. It was starting to get dark when I finally parked my car on and after getting up at 06:00 this had been a very long but most enjoyable day.
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