Activities
Southover Woods & CampingHorse & Pony Riding
Bring your own horse or pony and keep them in our pony paddock. We have a fenced 2 acre paddock with water supply that you can bring your horse or pony to stay in with you while you camp. Southover woods has access to hundreds of miles of bridleways for wonderful hacking with barely any roadwork required even on long rides. You can hack down to Moreton ford, or through Puddletown forest.
Walking & Rambling
You can walk for miles from Southover Woods on an extensive network of footpaths and bridleways that run through the woods, Hardy Way and can connect with the Jubilee trail.
Fly Fishing
Next to Southover Woods, Wessex Fly Fishing has been running fly fishing in Dorset for over 30 years. Countless fishermen have enjoyed their waters, many returning every year.
Ringstead Beach
Spend a day on this quiet stretch of the West Dorset coast where you can take a walk across the cliff tops above Ringstead, bring a kite, or pack a picnic and follow one of the steep ancient tracks down to the shingle beach. The water is incredibly clear and safe for bathing.
Part of the Jurassic coastline, on a fine day there are great views across Weymouth Bay to Portland.
A protected shingle beach with sand at low tide. There are also rockpools at low tide. Suitable for bathing depending on weather conditions. There are no lifeguards at Ringstead Beach. Toilets are located in the car park behind the kiosk. There is an accessible toilet by the car park and shop. There is a path to the beach but there is no matting on the beach.
The beach is reached either from a small National Trust car park with vehicle height limit above Southdown Farm (free but quite a long walk down to beach) or the private car park at Ringstead. There is also parking available in the village (pay and display).
Dogs welcome all year, off lead.