West
Dorset Farmhouse Bed
and Breakfast Accommodation
near
Dorchester, Bridport and Beaminster
MAP
OF WEST DORSET
Click
map for a higher resolution version
As
the above map shows, Grays Farmhouse is between Dorchester, Bridport
and Beaminster, ideally placed as a centre from which to explore
an area rich in interesting places to visit and things to do,
in the heart of West Dorset.
Click
here for a selection of nearby
Interesting Places
While every
attempt is made to ensure that the links are all working properly,
I do not have the time to check them regularly and I hope you
will be patient if some are out of date.
Melplash in August and Dorchester in September are the two big
ones. Return
to list
Biking
Off Road
Guests
tell us that the off-road biking in the area is superb. There
is ample space to leave bikes locked up and we shall be getting
a power-hose so you can wash them down easily after your ride.
Dorchester Museum has an interactive Children's Trail, while the
Tithe Barn, Children's Farm and Swannery at Abbotsbury are much
loved by children www.abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk
, as is the Dinosaur-museum.org.uk
, Tel.
013052699880.) Lovers of Teddy Bears should
visit the Teddy Bear house and the annual Teddy Bears' Picnic
in Dorchester. Older children may enjoy
The Tutankhamun Exhibition
At
Easter Abbotsbury hosts a Great Egg Hunt and there is a Kite Festival
at Weymouth in the Spring, and on Eggardon in September. There
are summer regattas and Trawler races, Red Arrow and firework
displays along the coast.
The Kingcombe-Centre
near us runs Children's Days for budding naturalists aged eight
upwards. Tel.01300320684 ( Web site:- ) .
Further afield is the Wildlife Park at Cricket St. Thomas Tel.01460
30111.
Grays Farmhouse is near
the World
Heritage coast, which within a 25 minutes drive offers remarkable
variety. Nearest to us is the National Trust family beach
at Burton Bradstock, with golden honey-combed cliffs and an excellent
cafe overlooking the beach. Slightly further afield to the east
are the magnificent chalk cliffs and rock formations of the Isle
of Purbeck, including Kimmeridge, Lulworth and Durdle Door and
to the west lie Charmouth and Lyme Regis.
Weymouth has a long sandy beach set in a beautiful, expansive
bay, and a fascinating old harbour. The east coast of Portland
is unique, with disused, luxuriantly overgrown quarries right
by the water's edge. At the southern tip, Portland Bill
has a lighthouse overlooking a wild shoreline piled with slabs
of the famous stone from which many of London's grandest buildings
were created.
The
cliff path on Portland's west coast provides glorious views towards
Lyme Regis down the Chesil Beach, an eleven-mile strip of shingle.
The inland water behind it, the Fleet, is a bird sanctuary, and
Abbotsbury is renowned for its swannery.
Nearer us, the western end of the Chesil is the sandiest part.
See "Swimming".
West Bay is where "Harbour Lights" was filmed. The
golden cliffs to each side are quite different in character from
the chalk ones east of Weymouth, reaching their highest point
between West Bay and Charmouth at Golden Cap.
The
marvellous coastal views, from Portland to the tip of South Devon,
combined with the gentle folds of meadow and woodland close to
a cliff edge full of tiny inlets, make this an idyllic stretch
of coast.
Coastal
erosion means that this part of the cliffs is forever changing.
Charmouth and Lyme are renowned for their fossils,
and Lyme in particular is a fascinating old town with its famous
cobb and some tempting teashops!
To the west of Lyme the cliffs slipped dramatically in the nineteenth
century, resulting in a huge rift where almost jungle-like vegetation
and sheer inland walls of stone create an environment reminiscent
of Conan Doyle's "Lost World". By then you
are into Devon... Return to list
Cycling
Even
in the height of summer the lanes around us are quiet enough to
make cycling enjoyable, and there are also plenty of bridle paths
and tracks through Hooke Woods. Much of the disused railway line
from Maiden Newton to West Bay is still accessible. Bikes may be
hired at Dorchester cycles. Return
to list
Fishing
The nearby River Frome
is stocked with trout and some salmon. For details of fly fishing
see www.goflyfishing.co.uk
Course fishing and trout fishing are available on various lakes
in the area. West Bay and Lyme Regis offer mackerel fishing trips
round the bay, or deep sea fishing for conger, cod, skate and pollack.
Fishermen are usually to be found fishing from the pier/cobb or
on the beach at Burton Bradstock. Return to list
Fossil Hunting
Lyme Regis and Charmouth
are famous for the crumbling Jurassic
rock cliffs, which have revealed 200 million-year-old fossils. For
more information, contact the Charmouth Heritage Coast Information
Centre, 01297 560772.
In July 2000 a 40 foot ichthyosaur was discovered at Charmouth.
For a fascinating account of this, see
www.charmouthfossils.co.uk Most of our own very modest collection
has been found under the cliffs at Burton Bradstock. Return
to list
Gardens
to Visit
Mapperton Manor, a very lovely 2 hour walk from us, has an Italianate
water garden set in idyllic surroundings. The well- known garden
-writer Anna Pavord describes it as her favourite garden anywhere.
Open April- October, not Saturdays. Tel.01308 862645.
On the coast is the spectacular subtropical garden at Abbotsbury,
open and well worth seeing all year, while inland are the landscaped
gardens of Minterne, with a hillside of Himalayan rhododendrons
and azaleas overlooking a chain of lakes, waterfalls and streams.
Open daily 10A.M. - 7p.m., April- October.
To the North West, Forde Abbey was winner of Christies Garden of
the Year Award. Open Daily, 10a.m.- 4.30 p.m. Tel. 01460 221290
Rosie
can advise you on many more worth visiting, as well as the local
village Open Garden days,and our library of garden books and magazines
would keep an enthusiast happy for hours. Return to list
Golf
There are eleven golf courses in West Dorset, many of them in stunning
settings on the coast. Guests tell us that those at both Lyme Regis
and West Bay are interesting courses. We can provide a leaflet giving
full details, or the local T.I. office will send you one on request. Return to list
History
From the World Heritage Jurassic, fossil-rich cliffs of Lyme, to
Dorchester,
capital of Hardy's Wessex, the past is probably as apparent in West
Dorset as in any part of England.
Iron-age hill forts and burial mounds, Roman roads and settlements,
the Cerne giant, motte and bailey castles, Norman churches, farmland
completely untouched by modern methods, the Jacobean facades of
medieval manor houses, the 200 listed honey-coloured buildings of
lovely Beaminster, the wide streets of rope-making Bridport: the
list is almost endless of the way the past still makes its presence
felt within moments of leaving the A35 .
Roger researched and wrote the local Millennium Community Play,
celebrating four thousand years of life in Powerstock, and charting
the fascinating impact through the ages of national events on this
tiny, seemingly timeless, community.
Alastair Chisholm, a delightfully entertaining and knowledgeable
extrovert, does a range of guided walks round Dorchester, and Maiden
Castle by moonlight. Tel. 01305 261135
Nearby
Mapperton Manor was voted the "The nation's Finest Manor House"
by 'Country Life' It is open in peak holiday season and bank holidays.Tel.01308
862645.
Athelhampton, built in 1485, has a magnificent early Tudor Great
hall, and houses an outstanding collection of English furniture,
from Jacobean to late Victorian. Athelhampton
Tel.01305 848363.
Slightly
further afield, Forde Abbey, a magnificent family home since the
17th.Century, was a Cistertian Monastery, founded in 1140 (see above,
but the house only open in summer and on certain days). http://www.bournemouth.co.uk/ptg/dd003889.htm
Montecute
houses much of the Tudor and Stuart collection of the National Portrait
Gallery.
On
a far humbler scale, Hardy's birthplace, Higher Bockhampton, is
an idyllic little cottage just outside Dorchester . Both these last
two are National Trust. Return to list
Museums
All the local towns boast museums, and those at Dorchester and Lyme
Regis are award-winning. (01305 262735 www.dorset.museum.clara.net
and 01297 443370 . The former houses a reconstruction of Hardy's
study.
Apart from general local social and natural history, there are specialist
museums to be found on such widely ranging themes as Tanks (Bovington
01929405096 www.tankmuseum.co.uk
), Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm Museum, Dorchester Keep, ENIGMA (Blandford,
Royal Signals Museum, 01258 482248, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, (Tolpuddle,
outside Dorchester, 01305 848237), Ropemaking (Bridport, 01308 4216659),
Underwater Exploration and the 'Titanic' and The Museum of Coastal
Defense (Weymouth), and much more.
Our nearest Summer Festival is at Beaminster in late June. For a
whole glorious week there are concerts in the church each evening,
events in the square at lunch time, several exhibitions, a garden
walk-about, and much else.
tel. 01308 863000.
Sherborne
Abbey and Sherborne School have a full programme of events:
Abbotsbury,
Burton Bradstock and Cerne Abbas also have interesting festivals.
Lyme Regis has a Jazz Festival www.lymeregis.com/jazz-festival
Kingston Maurward, Sherborne Castle, and Abbotsbury all host open
air concerts and operas . www.westdorset.com/whatsnew.htm
The wildlife artist, Gordon Beningfield, passionately loved this
area and made regular pilgrimages to Powerstock to paint the wild
flowers and animals, while the wildlife photographer, Colin Varndell,
considers the wildlife around Powerstock second to none.
If broad landscape or seascapes are more your interest, the wide
horizons from Eggardon, Golden Cap, Abbotsbury Castle or Hardy's
Monument could hardly be bettered, while those who love to paint
mellow old buildings will be spoilt for choice. Recently I have
been painting Corfe Castle, Abbotsbury and Eggardon
There
is plenty of room to store your painting gear in my studio, and
if the weather is bad, there are covered areas from which to work
around the grounds.
Dorset
Art Weeks is a biennial event. From 24May -8th. June 2008, over
300 studios, including mine, will be opening to the public in what
will be the biggest show of its kind in the country. Bridport Open
Studios is every August Bank Holiday and there are other opportunities
to see the work and studios of many local artists and craftspeople.
There are plenty of bridle ways, both following the coastline and
inland, and good tracks of open countryside suitable for galloping.
Horse
Riding is available at
Cattistock 01308 863006
Portisham 01305 871011
Monkton Wilde 01297 678747
Llama
Trekking in the Brit Valley
Beaminster 01308 8868674
Return to list
Swimming
There are a number of good family beaches with golden sand, notably
Burton Bradstock, West Bay, Charmouth and Lyme Regis. In season
dogs are banned.
Bridport has a Leisure Centre with an indoor pool. 01308 427464 Return to list
Walking
Grays Farmhouse lies at the heart of a seemingly endless maze of
paths and tracks and is near the The Jubilee Trail. After years
of regular walking, we are still discovering new routes from our
doorstep, including variations on our favourite walks to nearby
Powerstock, Powerstock Common, Eggardon, and Mapperton Manor. The
Wessex Ridgeway and the South-West Coastal Path are within easy
reach. Local T.I. Centres and the Websites given below provide
details of nearly 300 guided walks, including many from the Kingcombe-Centre Return to list
Tourist
Information
The West Dorset District Council website is a mine of helpful information,
www.westdorset.com
, and in addition West Dorset produces an interesting tourist guide,
along with much other information, available for order by email
or at the following T.I. offices:-
Bridport
01308 424901
Dorchester 01305 267992
Lyme Regis 01297422138
Sherborne 01935 88815341
West Bay 01308422807
Weymouth 01305 785747/ 772444
