Walking through the history

Another early start found us in the Chase again; another traverse of the Ebble Valley, a completely different route from last week though, and slightly shorter at 12.7 miles. Walking these chalk downland tracts you know you're walking through the history. From earliest prehistory Cranborne Chase has drawn folk to it; there's evidence for Mesolithic hunter gathers having a substantial presence here; early Neolithic farmers created a ritual landscape rich in monuments; by the Bronze Age agrarian settlements and field systems are well established and this continues through the Iron Age with the addition of Hillforts; the Romans farmed here; many of the current villages and hamlets began life during the Saxon period; the Medieval period added hunting forests; since then farming in one form or another has continued to dominate, and the landscape and life of the chase changed little until the 20th century. And you see that patina of human endeavour spanning millennia etched into this landscape wherever you look; you can't help but feel the ancestors when you're walking the rough tracks countless generations walked before you. The chase is a landscape soaked with history; and some of the best walking you'll find.