Stage 7 - Cranborne Droves Way - Win Green to Salisbury - 11th May 2025
- John Tippetts
- May 19
- 5 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
Official Stage Statistics
Route distance – 17.34 miles
Total ascent – 714 feet
Highest point – 902 feet
Logistics
Drive to Shaftesbury & park car - Angel Lane, Shaftesbury SP7 8DF - Just Park 3640
Taxi to National Trust Win Green SP7 0ES - Taxi4You Mere 07598 108317
Walk to Salisbury
Taxi to Premier Inn Salisbury South Milford SP1 2FF & stay overnight
Monday - bus back to Shaftesbury - P&R & 29
Drive home
My Walk
At ‘only’ 17 miles and virtually downhill all the way, I decided I could easily walk from Win Green to Salisbury in 1 sitting. My only issue would be getting back to the start to collect my car and belongings at the end of the walk. On a Sunday there is no public transport between Salisbury and Shaftesbury and there is no way I'd fork out for a taxi! Even on a weekday, the last bus from Salisbury leaves at 17:50. If anyone has got here having read my blog of Stage 5 of the Wessex Ridgeway, this is the reason why I’d left a bag of overnight stuff at the Salisbury Premier Inn a couple of days earlier. My plan was to walk the Cranborne Droves Way to Salisbury, stay overnight and then get the bus back to my car in Shaftesbury the next morning. I am so pleased to report that my planning worked perfectly!
Anyway, to the walk. I’d stayed at The Talbot in Iwerne Minster the night before. After having to pay extra for a single cup of coffee once again at breakfast I drove to Shaftesbury. I parked in the car park I’d agreed with the taxi firm the day before and even though he was a little late, I was back at Win Green by 10:00 am ready for my walk to Salisbury.
There were a few light clouds in an otherwise blue sky; yet another lovely day ahead of me! I stopped at the top of Win Green for a while taking in the 360° panoramic views. I then set off eastwards towards Salisbury along what was going to be an extremely well waymarked trail.
Very soon to my left and down in a valley was an extremely long, tree-lined lawn leading up to what looked like a most handsome country mansion. A swift bit of googling revealed that this was the Ferne Park Estate owned by 4th Viscount Rothermere, Jonathan Harmsworth, chairman of Daily Mail & General Trust.
Much of the Cranborne Droves Way involved following a pretty straight line across a ridge with fantastic views nearly all the way; it was therefore hard to go off course. The surface varied between grass and mud tracks, stone tracks and fully metalled minor roads. I’d read blogs written by people who’d got a little bogged down in flooded, rutted tracks in winter but fortunately I had no such problems. I could say that the landscape was a little bit ‘samey’ but on this occasion it was meant in a good way as the views were pretty spectacular from end to end.
After about 9 miles, the trail left the Ox Drove and started to head north east towards Salisbury. This next 5 mile section of the trail to Salisbury Racecourse roughly follows the course of an old Roman road. With total reliance on the OS Maps app on my phone there were a couple of fields where the app told me to walk diagonally across them but with crops filling the fields this wasn’t possible – no big deal to walk along the edges of the fields.
After about 12 miles I came to the pretty hamlet of Stratford Tony. I wish they’d called it Tony Stratford as that sounds like someone’s name! The River Ebble flows through the hamlet. At a crossroads the trail crossed the road and followed a sign for the racecourse. ½ mile along the road was a turning to the right which brought me back on to the track along the Roman road. Eventually I emerged by the white plastic rails of Salisbury Racecourse. The trail turned right here following the rails. I was now walking along the Old Shaftesbury Drove. This is a well known old road which for centuries was the main road between Salisbury and Shaftesbury and part of the longer route from London to the South West.
The trail only followed the Old Shaftesbury Drove for about ¾ mile before peeling off to the left towards Harnham, a suburb of Salisbury. There was a lot of house building going on here and plenty of temporary fencing keeping me away from the building sites. There was no doubting that they were building on chalk. Eventually I reached the residential streets of Harnham.
By now I’d drunk all my water and was in need of a drink. If I reached a shop first, I’d buy some water but if I reached a pub first then I’d buy a pint and get them to fill one of my water bottles. ‘Luckily’, I just happened to pass by the Old Mill in Harnham where I stopped for a pint before walking the final mile to Salisbury Cathedral! What a brilliant day I’d had – a trail in a day! Someone this year ran it in 2 hours 44 minutes but I completed it in a more leisurely 7 hours.
I stopped off at the Kings Head pub in the city centre for my tea before getting a taxi to the Salisbury South Milford Premier Inn and reuniting myself with my luggage. After spending the night at the Premier Inn, the next morning I got the bus back to my car in Shaftesbury and drove home. This was end of my second batch of walks along the Great Chalk Way and very successful and enjoyable it had been.
2 trails down now and officially 69.5 miles completed!
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