Heritage in Dorset

Heritage in Dorset covers castles, historic houses, museums and ancient sites. Events on soon come first, then places open all year. Every listing links to its source.

Open all year
Sherborne Castle and Gardens
Sherborne · West Dorset · Heritage
- Family-friendly
- Dog-friendly
- +1 more
A historic house built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1594 and home to the Digby family since 1617, near Sherborne. Visitors can join a guided tour of the state rooms and Tudor kitchen, explore the Family Museum in the cellars, and wander 42 acres of landscape gardens around a 50-acre lake with features such as Raleigh's Seat and the Fossil House. Family trails run through the season, and dogs on short leads are welcome in the gardens.
Open all year
Portland Bill Lighthouse
Portland · Heritage
- Family-friendly
A working lighthouse on Portland Bill, standing 41 metres tall with its distinctive red and white tower. Visitors can climb 155 steps to the lantern room for views along the Jurassic coast, and explore displays in the refurbished visitor centre. Climbers must be at least 1.1 metres tall.
Open all year
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle · Isle of Purbeck · Heritage
- Family-friendly
Ruined hilltop castle in the Isle of Purbeck, partly destroyed during the English Civil War. Visitors can explore fallen walls, spot murder holes and arrow loops, and take in wide views across Purbeck. A thousand years of royal and family history, from Henry I to the Bankes family, unfolds across the site, appealing to both adults and children.
Open all year
Highcliffe Castle
Highcliffe · Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole · Heritage
- Family-friendly
- Car-free friendly
- +1 more
A Grade I listed 19th-century castle set in grounds with direct access to a sandy beach and the nearby Steamer Point nature reserve. Room hosts share the history of the building and past residents, including department store founder Harry Gordon Selfridge, who once lived there. The grounds suit a relaxing stroll or a family picnic, and there are tearooms on site.
Open all year
Poole Museum
Poole · Heritage
- Free
- Family-friendly
- Rainy day
- +2 more
A maritime museum in Poole's Old Town telling the story of the town and its people shaped by the sea. Visitors can see three immersive galleries, an Iron Age logboat nearly ten metres long, interactive displays and family-friendly trails, with free entry. The site also includes Scaplen's Court, a preserved medieval merchant's house with a walled herb garden.
Open all year
Maiden Castle
Dorchester · West Dorset · Heritage
- Free
- Dog-friendly
- +1 more
One of the largest and most complex Iron Age hillforts in Europe, its huge multiple ramparts, begun about 2,400 years ago, enclose an area the size of 50 football pitches. Entry is free at any reasonable time in daylight. The small car park gets busy at peak times. Chalk paths can be uneven and slippery, so wear sturdy footwear; the site is very exposed, and dogs must stay on a lead as sheep graze here.
Open all year
Swanage Railway
Swanage · Isle of Purbeck · Heritage
A heritage steam railway running 12 miles through the Purbeck countryside between Swanage, Corfe Castle, Harmans Cross, Herston Halt and Norden. Trips offer views of Corfe Castle and a chance to break the journey at stations along the line, including a railway museum at Corfe Station. Steam trains run most weekends year round and daily from April to October, with vintage diesel trains also in use.
Open all year
Tyneham Village
Tyneham · Isle of Purbeck · Heritage
- Dog-friendly
A deserted village evacuated in 1943 for wartime military training, now part of the Ministry of Defence's Lulworth Ranges. Visitors can see the ruined Row of terraced houses and the restored church and school, which hold exhibitions about the village and its former residents. A picnic area is set among restored farm outbuildings, and a mile-long walk leads on to Worbarrow Bay.
Open all year
Cerne Abbas Giant
Cerne Abbas · West Dorset · Heritage
A 180ft chalk figure of a club-wielding man cut into a hillside above the village of Cerne Abbas. Its age is uncertain, though a recent archaeological study suggests it may date from around 700-1100AD, pointing to a late Saxon origin. A gentle walk leads from the village to a viewing area off the main road, with a picnic spot near the car park; direct access to the figure itself is restricted to prevent erosion.
Open all year
The Tank Museum
Bovington · Isle of Purbeck · Heritage
- Family-friendly
- Rainy day
- Accessible
- +2 more
Around 300 tanks and military vehicles fill the halls of The Tank Museum at Bovington, the home of the tank. Nine exhibitions in seven large halls follow the story from the Somme to the beaches of Normandy and the deserts of Iraq, with stories from the soldiers who fought in them. Allow four to five hours. Parking is free, and there is a café, soft play and a shop. New exhibition work causes some disruption until January 2027.
Open all year
Nothe Fort
Weymouth · Heritage
- Family-friendly
Nothe Fort is Weymouth's historic sea fort, with a maze of underground tunnels, a Victorian gun deck and a secret nuclear bunker to explore. Up on the ramparts there is a Second World War gun and views along the Jurassic Coast. Volunteers are on hand, there are trails to keep children busy, and the café serves light lunches and cakes. The fort is closed for maintenance from 2 November 2026 until February 2027.
Open all year
Badbury Rings
Shapwick · East Dorset · Heritage
- Free
- Family-friendly
- Dog-friendly
- +2 more
One of Dorset's finest Iron Age hillforts, set in chalk grassland that is home to ground-nesting skylarks, wild orchids and butterflies, with an avenue of beech trees and views across the Dorset countryside. It's free to visit from dawn to dusk, and parking is free for National Trust members. The ground is uneven and steep in places and there are no toilets. Sheep and cattle graze here, and dogs must be on a lead from late February to August.
Open all year
Athelhampton House and Gardens
Athelhampton · West Dorset · Heritage
A historic manor house in the Piddle valley between Tolpuddle and Puddletown, continually lived in since Saxon times and mentioned in the Domesday book. Its Great Hall, built in 1485, is considered a fine example of Tudor architecture, with an original hammer-beam roof and stained glass. The surrounding gardens were created in the 1890s and have won a Christies' Garden of the Year award.
Open all year
Bournemouth Aviation Museum
Christchurch · Heritage
- Family-friendly
A hands-on aviation museum with many interactive exhibits, where you can sit in most of the aircraft cockpits and see the English Electric Lightning and the Westland Wessex helicopter up close. It suits families, children and young people, and the shop of aviation gifts and memorabilia can be visited without entering the museum. It's open daily all year except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, with last admission 40 minutes before closing.
Open all year
Dorset Museum & Art Gallery
Dorchester · West Dorset · Heritage
- Family-friendly
- Accessible
- Rainy day
- +2 more
A museum and art gallery in Dorchester covering 250 million years of Dorset's history, geology and art. Visitors can see Jurassic Coast fossils, Iron Age finds from Maiden Castle, a recreation of Thomas Hardy's study, and works by sculptor Elisabeth Frink. The Victorian hall features a Roman mosaic floor visitors can stand on and a Learning Centre offers activities for children.
Open all year
Kingston Lacy
Wimborne Minster · East Dorset · Heritage
Kingston Lacy is a 17th century Italian-style country house with formal gardens and parkland. Visitors can view paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck and Titian, and see one of the UK's largest private collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts. The estate also includes woodland walks, a Japanese garden and Badbury Rings.
Open all year
St Catherine's Chapel
Abbotsbury · West Dorset · Heritage
A 14th-century hilltop chapel above Abbotsbury, built by monks as a place of pilgrimage and retreat. Visitors can climb up for views of the abbey ruins and explore the chapel's nooks and crannies, including the 'wishing holes' where local women once prayed to St Catherine for a husband. The local parish still holds occasional services there.
Open all year
The Etches Collection
Kimmeridge · Isle of Purbeck · Heritage
- Rainy day
The Etches Collection is a modern museum in Kimmeridge showing fossils of the marine life of Jurassic Dorset, and the story of life and death in the Kimmeridgian seas 157 million years ago, in the age of the dinosaurs. A Jurassic giant known as Big Sara can be seen at set viewing times. The museum is open every day apart from over Christmas, there is no need to book, and one ticket lets you return free for a year.
Open all year
Castletown D-Day Museum
Portland · Heritage
- Family-friendly
This museum on the Isle of Portland recreates the wartime dockyard from which US troops embarked for the D-Day landings in 1944. Visitors can handle original WW2 artefacts and weapons, climb inside military vehicles, or read information panels while taking in the dockyard setting. It suits all the family, and visitors are encouraged to dress in 1940s attire.
Open all year
Museum of East Dorset
Wimborne Minster · East Dorset · Heritage
- Family-friendly
- Accessible
- Rainy day
- +2 more
A family-friendly museum set in a historic town house off Wimborne's High Street, with 11 galleries covering local history and archaeology. Visitors can enjoy interactive exhibits, face-to-face encounters with figures from Wimborne's past, and a collection of Victorian Valentine cards. The site also has a walled garden, tearoom, second-hand bookshop and gift shop.
Open all year
The Sherborne Art & Culture Hub
Sherborne · West Dorset · Heritage
- Free
- Rainy day
- +1 more
A restored Grade I listed Georgian building in the heart of Sherborne, combining historic interiors with galleries, a shop and a cafe. Visitors can see a nationally significant Sir James Thornhill mural and explore a building once used as a private home, a girls' school and an arts centre. The house and galleries are open daily with free admission.
Open all year
Royal Signals Museum
Blandford Camp · North Dorset · Heritage
- Rainy day
- Accessible
- +1 more
The Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Camp tells the story of the Royal Corps of Signals and of military communications, from semaphore to satellite. Displays include a First World War cable wagon, secret SOE radios, Cold War cryptographic equipment, animals at war and a medal gallery. Adults aged 16 and over need valid photo ID to enter the camp. The museum is closed on Sundays, and only assistance dogs are allowed inside.

About heritage in Dorset

Corfe Castle is a ruined hilltop castle on the Isle of Purbeck, Maiden Castle near Dorchester is one of the largest Iron Age hillforts in Europe, and Badbury Rings is another Iron Age hillfort, set in chalk grassland. Above the village of Cerne Abbas, the Cerne Abbas Giant is a 180ft chalk figure cut into the hillside.

Historic houses include Kingston Lacy, Athelhampton and Sherborne Castle. For a rainy day there are museums such as the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in Dorchester, Poole Museum, The Tank Museum at Bovington and The Etches Collection of Jurassic fossils at Kimmeridge. On the coast, you can explore the tunnels of Nothe Fort in Weymouth or climb Portland Bill Lighthouse.