The Ancient Trails Company

About

We offer a walking holiday and day experiences like no other – we meet, we pack up the ponies, we walk, we camp wild(ish). We also ‘wild glamp’. And now you can too.

Ancient Trails has evolved from our love of where we live- Dorset - this land, these hills, our history, the traditions, and just the whole darned beauty of the place. There is nothing like leaving your car behind and walking away. Carrying what you need, stopping when the view demands it and being immersed in a network of trails that have connected farms, villages and towns to each other for hundreds, even thousands of years.  We visit some of Dorset’s most iconic places as well as some of our most secret – from Corfe Castle and Old Harry Rocks to the trail Thomas Hardy’s family undoubtedly used for smuggling. To place your feet where, for generations past, others have planted theirs and to look out at an essentially unchanged view of rolling fields, tiny villages and magnificent backdrops is something beyond special

To do all of this with the ponies, well, it's the stuff of dreams. They don't just plod, they prick their ears up, they stride out and genuinely enjoy the adventure - they will even stop to take in views just as we do.

We don't ever want these days to end, so we sleep out too. On one of our first camps, a flock of geese flew right over us, so close we could hear them exhale, a stag called out in the night and through the gaps in the trees I saw that Mars really did glow red amongst the sea of white diamonds in the sky. We want to share this with you.

We believe in what we do. This is healing. This is growing. This is awe and beauty and clean air and simple needs.