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The Hardy Way

 

The Hardy Way at the Rings, near Corfe Castle, Dorset

The Hardy Way is a long distance path related to locations in Thomas Hardy's novels of "Wessex". It begins at his birth place, Hardy's Cottage in Higher Bockingham in Dorset, and makes a two hundred mile circuit ending at the churchyard at Stinsford, close to Higher Bockingham, where his heart is reputedly buried. On the way the path visits Puddletown, Lulworth Cove, Kimmeridge, Corfe Castle, Wareham, Wimborne, Cranborne Chase, Shaftsbury, Sturminster Newton, Buckland Newton, Eveshot, Bridport, Weymouth, Dorchester, and Stinsford.

The path can be walked in its entirety, or in sections. A guide book such as The Hardy Way by Margaret Marande will help you. I walked a short section of the path around an ancient earth work fortification known as the Rings. This is close to the ruined Corfe Castle. The layers of history, so important to Hardy were much in evidence here. Corfe 77Castle appeared in Thomas Hardy's book The Hand of Ethelberta