Tourist attractions Dorchester

Occupying around twenty hectares, Maiden Castle's earthwork ramparts are among the finest in Britain. They were built c 350 BC on the site of a Neolithic settlement, and there were four main building phases. The complex was fully equipped with its de..

Britain’s finest earthwork ramparts were begun around 350 BC on the site of a neolithic village dating back three thusand years. Four phases of development were udertaken before the extensive network of defences was completed around 60 BC. The fortre..

This shingle beach stretches for 13km and closes a lagoon, at the end of which stands the village of Abbotsbury. A swannery , founded here by monks in around 1390, continues to thrive in the mild climate, as do the lush subtropical gardens.

A splendid Victorian gallery, with painted cast-iron pillars and arches supporting a glass roof, houses Thomas Hardy memorabilia. The author was born near Dorchester and the stories in his novels take place in the region. The furniture, paintings a..

The fine Perpendicular Church of St John the Baptist is the only building in the village to have survived the last of a series of fires in 1788. The carved, painted ceiling dating from the 16C is pure joy. Note the capitals in the late 12C arcade w..

South Street, Dorchester's main shopping street, starts with an impressive row of 18C red brick façades. No 10, where the Mayor of Casterbridge lived in the novel of the same name, now a bank, is a distinguished, three-storey, late 18C house.

Eric Kennington's 1931 Thomas Hardy Memorial represents the author as an old man, hat on knee, seated on a flowering tree stump. The author (1840-1928), born near Dorchester, situated many of his novels in Wessex, an ancient Saxon kingdom which cover..

The Abbey Church was rebuilt after a fire in 1309 in the Early English Gothic (13C) and Decorated Gothic (14C) styles, but work was stopped by the Black Death in 1348. Although around 40m long, the church consists of only a chancel and transept. The ..