Ackling Dyke

Ackling Dyke ran south-west from Sorviodunum at Old Sarum to Durnovaria at Dorchester, climbing the chalk downs of Cranborne Chase. Long sections survive as a high, broad agger raised three metres above the surrounding fields, one of the most impressive Roman earthworks left in Britain. The road brushed past the Iron Age hillfort at Badbury Rings, where you can still walk it for several miles between barrows and beech clumps. The name is Anglo-Saxon, possibly from æcca meaning oak or from a personal name; nobody is certain. It is now a long-distance footpath through some of the quietest country in southern England.