Wareham Forest Walk - Decoy Heath - geograph

Decoy Heath is an area of open

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

and

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

forming part of Wareham Forest west of the

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

conurbation in south

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is part of the

Dorset Heaths The Dorset Heaths form an important area of heathland within the Poole Basin in southern England. Much of the area is protected. Extent According to Natural England, who have designated the Dorset Heaths as National Character Area 135, the ...

. Decoy Heath is the lower part of Morden Bog, which is a National Nature Reserve, and lies in the centre of Wareham Forest about 2.5 kilometres north-northwest of the village of Sandford to the west of the B 3075. To the east, across the B road is Gore Heath; to the north, beyond the Sherford River, the land rises up to the open hillsides of Chitten Hill (41m) and to the south to wooded slopes of Great Ovens Hill (37m). To the west are Morden Heath, Northport Heath and Trigon Hill. The

Hardy Way {{Use British English, date=March 2018 The Hardy Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in southern England in the United Kingdom. Length of the Hardy Way The route runs for 354 km or 220 miles. The route The route is named for the writ ...

runs along the western edge of the heath and there is a memorial by the wayside. Wareham Forest Walk - Decoy Heath - geograph

The Decoy Pond and its associated overnight shelter are a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

. It is one of only two surviving decoy ponds in Dorset.''Decoy pond and associated overnight shelter on Decoy Heath''
at historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 7 Nov 2016.

References

Geography of Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub