Walking the Walls of Wareham

We took the train to Wareham this morning. It's only a six minute journey. We wanted to walk around the town walls for the first time.

The little town of Wareham sits between two rivers: the Piddle and the Frome. We crossed a stone bridge over the Piddle on our walk from the train station. Looking over we saw one area of the water with no vegetation. A shoal of large trout (at least I think they were trout) were just basking there in the sun.

Just beyond the bridge we turned right to reach the town wall stretching around the west side of the town. The walls are high earthworks built in the time of Alfred the Great to repel the Vikings. That was in the 9th century so it's a really old town. The walls on the west side are the highest, with the river running below, and the views are fantastic.

We followed the wall round to the quay on the River Frome, pictured above. The photo was taken at a different time of year when it was very quiet. Today it was thronged with people enjoying the sunshine on the water as well as the land. But we moved on to complete the circle of the wall which began again beyond the church and the cemetery behind the quay.

Back at the station, we just had time for a cooling pint in the bar across the road, before the train arrived to take us home. The walk had taken us about an hour and a half, with a few stops to take in the views and consult the map. We hadn't been hurrying, so it was probably less than three miles altogether.