Once parked you find yourself adjacent to a fine Cotswold Stone barn and assorted farm outbuildings (built around 1860) and which go by the name Ewepen Buildings.

This name is a good indication of their original use. Today a few swallows are the main residents (in summer months) but the structure is worth a few minutes' study in itself, with the odd agricultural artefact and some useful noticeboards on display - the latter describing the park and its history (it passed into the hands of the Dutton family following the Dissolution of the Monasteries and remained with them until the National Trust took possession in 1987).

A few steps in and the path divides. Either route will eventually lead to the same place but we will head downhill to your left.

Elder starts to put in an appearance here and will be found throughout much of the next part of the walk. It is in this part of the wood that quarrying once took place (from the pathway all that is evident now are the large overgrown mounds of spoil), these workings now home to a colony of long-eared bats. Lords and ladies (otherwise known as Cuckoo Pint) are commonly encountered on the woodland floor here, waiting to attract and trap insect victims.

Exit the wood, briefly, through the iron gate and bear right, along a short, coarsely laid path and down to the Ice House.

The fabric of this building remains in quite excellent condition. To stand inside its doorway and peer into the ice chamber gives the visitor a good idea of how well the chilly insides of the structure would have served its purpose well, even in warm weather. Continuing down hill and back into the woodland one comes to a lovely clearing, decorated by a striking bronze sculpture (the first of a number of such delights) of a Barn Owl. This charming spot is made even more perfect by an elegant grassy mound, topped by a mature yew tree and encircled by a fine cast-iron bench. A few box shrubs are dotted around and you may spot muntjac or other deer tracks in any soft ground here.

Having perhaps taken a few moments to rest, the walker is faced with several choices of pathway. We will take the right-hand route (although, again, you could take any of those offered without fear of going off course). The view across the fields on your right side is typically Cotswoldian and worth a scan with binoculars. Depending on the time of year, you might spy fieldfares, redwings and other thrushes along with rooks and the odd buzzard. The picture on your left will be quite different with various tit species and other typical woodland birds inhabiting the canopy.

Walk on downhill but not so fast that you miss the impressive carving of a giant stag beetle in the fallen limb of a large beech tree.

The sculptures in the park are intended to represent something of the fauna present and, whilst this endangered insect is not well represented in our part of the country, it could just be that there are some around where dead wood is allowed to accumulate. As you track downhill, the path veering right, pause also to note Sherborne House across the garden lawns to your left. Early in the year the lawns beneath the trees here sport a delightful spray of Spring Crocus and Winter Aconite, mixed with the odd clump of Wild Daffodil. Keep descending the gentle slope and admire the ha ha, where the field abuts the pathway, before exiting the woodland through the stone gateway.

You are now in the well-kept village of Sherborne and you should turn immediately left, cross the road and walk the tarmac path that adjoins the road.

We will keep on this path until the end of the village, but may wish to pay some attention to the Windrush brook that runs more or less parallel to the road a short distance off. This area of water and meadowland can throw up interesting birds with some three hundred-odd wigeon present when I last walked this way. You may also want to visit the tiny graveyard situated above the Windrush valley and immediately off the road.

As you approach the end of the village look out for another stone gateway, on your left, which takes you back into woodland.

Tracking up through the trees, mainly elder, beech, ash with some hazel at first then merging into largely larch plantation, check again for signs of deer. After a short distance you will be guaranteed the sight of a hind, peering out of the foliage on the path ahead where it climbs higher into the wood. Closer inspection will indicate that the beast is another of the trail's sculptures and some wooden benches provided here allow you to catch your breath, from the short climb up to this spot, and enjoy her rusting metal form at closer quarters.