Today (Mon 9 Nov) · West Dorset
West Dorset runs from Lyme Regis, Charmouth and West Bay on the coast to Dorchester, Sherborne and Cerne Abbas inland. Listings here include the climb up Golden Cap, the Abbotsbury Swannery and Subtropical Gardens, and historic houses and gardens such as Athelhampton, Mapperton and Forde Abbey. Boat trips leave from Lyme Regis and West Bay, and local food and drink sits alongside events in the towns.
Arts and culture
An annual week-long festival bringing authors to venues in and around Bridport, including novelists, historians, biographers, nature writers and poets. The programme also features musical, children's and culinary events, suiting book lovers of all kinds.
Open all year
Lyme Regis has four beaches. Front Beach, part sand and part pebble, is the most popular for swimming and paddling, with RNLI lifeguards in peak season. Monmouth Beach leads to the ammonite pavement and the Undercliffs nature reserve. East Cliff Beach is rich in fossils, but its cliffs are unstable and it can be cut off at high tide. Dogs can use every beach except Front Beach all year.
Open all year
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
A small family run aquarium on the Jurassic Coast, showing seashore and deeper water creatures. Visitors can feed a shoal of grey mullet by hand, hold a starfish, and get close to lobsters and crabs, alongside tanks of bass, wrasse, blennies and dogfish. There are also displays on local maritime history and footage of Lyme Bay's reefs and dolphins.
Open all year
Gorcombe Xtreme Sports is an activity centre offering quad biking, clay shooting, rage karting, paintballing, archery and crazy footgolf, alongside challenge courses with obstacles such as monkey bars and swinging ropes. Visitors can also use an indoor swimming pool, walk through a sunflower field, pick pumpkins and meet the site's goats, with a cafe on site.
Open all year
A former Cistercian monastery turned private family home, set on the banks of the River Axe with around 30 acres of award-winning gardens and ponds. The gardens change through the seasons, from spring bulbs and tulips to summer roses and dahlias, autumn colour in the arboretum, and a working walled kitchen garden growing vegetables and pumpkins.
Open all year
A subtropical garden set in a sheltered woodland valley with its own micro-climate, close to the Fleet Lagoon and Chesil Beach. It holds notable collections of camellias, magnolias, rhododendrons and hydrangeas, alongside a Victorian garden, Burma Rope Bridge and views of the Jurassic Coast. There is a coffee shop, gift shop and plant centre on site, with free car parking and dogs welcome on leads.
Open all year
A historic wildlife site on the Dorset coast where visitors can walk among a colony of nesting mute swans. Hand feeding sessions take place daily alongside a talk from the swanherd, and families can enjoy the Brambly Hedge Trail, a willow maze and pedal go-karts. There is also a herb garden, a reed cutter's display and a café.
Open all year
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
The Wessex Ridgeway is a long-distance trail crossing Dorset's rural heartland along a chalk ridge. It passes villages such as Cerne Abbas, takes in views across the Blackmore and Marshwood Vales, and finishes at Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast. The walking route covers around 62 miles, with a separate multi-use section for walking, cycling and horse riding.
Open all year
A walk up the pine-topped hill on the Symondsbury Estate, along a permissive path from the estate's free car park. It takes about 45 minutes, with a steep but steady slope to the summit and panoramic views of West Dorset, East Devon and out to sea. Sheep graze in the fields and on the hill, so close every gate and keep dogs on leads. Wear walking boots or wellies on rainy days.
Open all year
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
Sculpture by the Lakes is a sculpture park at Pallington, near Dorchester. Allow at least an hour and a half, with plenty of places to sit or picnic along the way. The park needs a ticket, best booked ahead, while The Makers Yard is free to enter. Children under 14 are not admitted because of the deep, fast-flowing water. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome in most areas, and paths can be muddy in wet weather.
Open all year
A gently shelving beach of pebbles and sand, famous with Lyme Regis for its fossils, especially in the winter months. Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre runs guided fossil walks from February to September; collect only from fallen or beach material, never dig in the cliffs. After large cliff falls, stay away from the cliffs, and check tide times as you can be cut off. Dogs are welcome all year on East Beach.
Open all year
A rural estate near Bridport offering miles of footpaths through hills, farmland and woodland, including a walk to the summit of Colmer's Hill with views towards the Jurassic Coast. Visitors can also explore The Holloways, a network of ancient sunken pathways shaded by trees. Entry and parking are free, and dogs are welcome across the estate.
Open all year
Two shingle beaches by the harbour: East Beach, below golden sandstone cliffs, and the smaller West Beach, sheltered and shallow for paddling and popular with young families. West Beach has ramps, summer beach matting and free beach wheelchairs. East Beach shelves steeply with a strong undertow, and after recent cliff falls you should keep well away from the base of the cliffs. Dogs aren't allowed on the main beaches from 1 May to 30 September.
Open all year
One of the Symondsbury Estate's two holloways, with Shute's Lane: an ancient sunken lane worn deep over centuries by people and livestock, with ivy-draped walls, gnarled roots and a high canopy of trees overhead. Look for carvings etched into the banks and rare plants such as navelwort, bellflowers and goblin's gold moss. Pick up a map at the Visitor Centre, and wear sturdy boots or wellies, as the ground can be uneven and muddy.
Open all year
Golden Cap is a flat-topped hill of orange sandstone on the cliffs between Charmouth and Bridport, the highest point on the south coast at 191 metres. Walkers climbing to the top pass through fields, wind-scoured oaks and heathland, with views to Portland Bill, Start Point and Dartmoor. The National Trust estate also includes the ruined church of St Gabriel's and a row of thatched cottages, remnants of the former fishing village of Stanton.
Open all year
Mapperton is a Jacobean manor house in West Dorset overlooking award-winning Italianate gardens with fountains, statues, topiary and herbaceous borders. These flow into woodland walks, wildflower meadows and ponds, with the Mapperton Wildlands rewilding project beyond. The estate also has a café, children's play areas and free parking.
Open all year
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
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
A pebble barrier beach running 28km from Portland to West Bay, part of the Jurassic Coast and the reason Portland is joined to the mainland. At the Portland end, Chesil Cove is a popular place to sit on the beach, swim, dive and even surf, and anglers come all along it. The Chesil Beach Centre, beside the Fleet Lagoon, has a boardwalk giving easy access onto the beach.
Open all year
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
Skippered RIB boat trips along the Jurassic Coast, departing from Bridport Harbour in West Bay. Options range from fast-paced adventures to relaxing sightseeing cruises and private hire, suiting families, couples and groups. Trips run from Easter through to the end of October, weather and sea conditions permitting.