Our verdict
A genuinely brilliant leg-stretch — steep enough to earn the view, and one of the best short walks in this whole area. Cattle graze the ramparts, so keep dogs on a short lead throughout rather than letting them range over the earthworks.
One of Dorset's most iconic sites: a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest where a massive multi-vallate Iron Age hillfort rings the summit, 190 metres above the Blackmore Vale with views into Wiltshire and Somerset. It was the scene of a real battle in 1645 when Cromwell's New Model Army routed a few thousand Clubmen who had gathered to resist both sides in the Civil War.