Forest bathing at Duncliffe Wood

Duncliffe Wood covers about 92 hectares of Duncliffe Hill, three miles west of Shaftesbury, and is one of the largest ancient woods in North Dorset. It is in the Domesday Book, and over the centuries belonged to a French nunnery, the Crown, Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, before the Woodland Trust bought it in 1984. There are big old oaks and beeches, and coppice stools of small-leaved lime thought to be 600 to 1,000 years old. Conifers planted in the 1960s and 70s are steadily being replaced with native trees.

Park in the small free car park off New Lane, near Stour Row. Four waymarked walks start from the main entrances, including a Bluebell Route for spring. The stone-topped east to west track is the driest, but it is steep near the western gate, and the grassy rides can be very muddy in wet weather. The Hardy Way passes through. There are no toilets; the nearest are in Shaftesbury.