At , Dogbury Hill is one of the highest hills in the county of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is the site of a prehistoric

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

. __NOTOC__

Location

Dogmore Hill rises just a few hundred yards north of the village of

Minterne Magna Minterne Magna is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated midway between Dorchester and Sherborne. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 184. The village is sited near the source of the River Cerne among the chalk ...

in the

Blackmore Vale The Blackmore Vale (; less commonly spelt ''Blackmoor'') is a vale, or wide valley, in north Dorset, and to a lesser extent south Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England. Geography The vale is part of the Stour valley, part of t ...

and east of the A352 about 14 kilometres from Dorchester. Its summit area is covered by the Dogmore Plantation and a lane runs over the hill and along the ridge to the southeast, passing close to the summit. There is a bridleway running roughly east to west across its northern flank and along the edge of the plantation. Nearby are the other eminences of

Telegraph Hill A telegraph hill is a hill or other natural elevation that is chosen as part of an optical telegraph system. Telegraph Hill may also refer to: England * A high point in the Haldon Hills, Devon * Telegraph Hill, Dorset, a hill in the Dorset Down ...

, High Stoy and

Gore Hill Gore Hill is an urban locality on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Gore Hill is located within the southern part of the suburb of Artarmon, and the north-west of the suburb of St Leonards. History It takes its na ...

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

1:50,000 Landranger series, No. 194.

Rivers and streams

The

River Cerne The River Cerne is a ten mile long river in Dorset, England, which rises in the Chalk hills of the Dorset Downs at Minterne Magna, between High Stoy and Dogbury Hill, flows down a valley through Cerne Abbas and Charminster, and flows into t ...

rises in the shadow of High Stoy and Dogbury Hill, its actual source being a damp hollow in the steep valley head above Minterne Magna. On the other side of Dogbury is the source of the Caundle Brook, near Clinger Farm, the chief tributary of the

Lydden ''Lydden is also the name of a hamlet in the Manston, Kent civil parish'' Lydden is a civil parish and small village in the Dover district of Kent, England. The Lydden Race Circuit is located between here and Wootton to the west of the village. ...

. At Dogbury Hill there is an ancient enclosure.

Dogbury Gate

Dogbury Gate (ST669044) is a miniature pass at the head of the Cerne Valley taking the main A352 over to the clay lowlands of the

Films

The area of Minterne, Dogbury Hill and High Stoy was the setting for

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

's novel, ''

The Woodlanders ''The Woodlanders'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was serialised from May 1886 to April 1887 in ''Macmillan's Magazine'' and published in three volumes in 1887. It is one of his series of Wessex novels. Plot summary The story takes place in ...

'', Minterne House being referred to as Great Hintock House. The 1990s TV film of Hardy's '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' was made on Dogbury Hill.''A familiar haunt for film companies''
at minterne.co.uk. Accessed on 29 Mar 2013.

References

{{Reflist Hills of Dorset