Farmhouse B&B

Dorset Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast Accommodation

adjoining two Wildlife Reserves

Eggardon

Coast

Surrounding Villages

Photo Gallery

Gray's Farmhouse, two miles from Powerstock church, looks out over two
Dorset Wildlife Reserves

Powerstock Common, was a royal hunting forest in the time of Athelstan, and later, King John built a castle there. Now it is remarkable for its ancient oaks, with their almost primeval forest floor, and its beech and bluebell woods.

The Kingcombe Meadows Reserve is a rare example of farmland totally untouched by modern methods, and is described by the Trust as "an extraordinary survival from the 19th. Century…..much of it as it would have been in medieval times. The wildlife interest of the site is exceptional, and even today…visitors are making new species records."

While Powerstock Common is ancient woodland, Kingcombe is a world of meadows and streams, best seen when newborn lambs stagger to their feet or when butterflies flit through the wildflowers in June.  Next door to the Reserve is the Kingcombe Centre which offers a wide variety of courses in matters associated with conservation.

On the Hooke River, nearby, there is an otter in residence and kingfishers are sometimes seen.

Visitors to Grays Farmhouse frequently see deer, buzzards, badgers, and there is a profusion of wild flowers including several species of orchid, genuinely wild snowdrops, cowslips, and a succession of magnificently prolific pink flowers, starting with red campion which coincides with the bluebells and cow-parsley, then foxgloves, rosebay willow-herb, and wild roses. And of course there are the yellow flowers too, the primroses, celandines, buttercups, flag irises, honeysuckle…

The richly varied and prolific wildlife make walking in this area a joy for wildlife lovers, and people come from all over the country to enjoy the peace and tranquility of this part of West Dorset which looks much as it would have looked for centuries, where traffic is still scarce and the sound of birdsong and insects, the bleating of sheep and the rustling of the breeze are often all that break the silence.