Purbeck Footprints: Kingston to Houts-tout

Saturday 21 February 2015

Kingston to Houts-tout

It is hard to imagine a better walk than this! For me, the outcrop of rock that rises high above the sea named as Houns-tout is just about the perfect place but the reasons for thinking this are not so clear.
The views are just superb but then there are other views that equal this perhaps.
This place allows you stand on the edge of exposed stacks the best part of 500ft above the sea and gives you the feeling that you are flying with the gulls but maybe there are other, more impressive cliffs.
The walk then, from a small car park in The Plantation near the village, that seems to take you higher and higher without the pain of an uphill climb? Well, I know of a few of these around here so it can't be that!
All of these things help make Houns-tout special but there is something else, something that I can't put my finger on, can't put into words and certainly can't commit to computer screen!
Just sit on the edge of one of these stacks on a clear evening, summer or winter it really doesn't matter, and watch the Sun drop the distant hills. Don't worry about being alone as you will have plenty of company: Badgers, Foxes, both Roe and Sika won't be far away and the mournful call of the Buzzard will compete for your attention with the impatient screech of the Peregrine.
The walk back to Kingston can take you in too directions: back the way you came or down to Chapman's Pool, then north past Westhill Farm.
Either walk is fine but if you take the steps down towards Chapman's Pool you are in for a very particular treat! Over 160 very steep steps take you down the hill into the valley and this is only part of the way down to the sea, if that is where you want to go. That is for another day though as today it is better to head north across green fields until you reach the track that gradually becomes South Street, Kingston.
This is not a long walk, an easy two hours without lingering time, you don't need any special equipment or extreme survival skills, but it really is one of the finest walks I have ever done.