Dorset
Built in the 12th century as a Cistercian monastery, Forde has been a private home since 1649. The building boasts magnificent plasterwork ceilings and fine tapestries but the gardens steal the show: 12 hectares of lawns, ponds, shrubberies and flower beds with hundreds of rare and beautiful species.
Forde Abbey is 10 miles north of Lyme Regis; public transport is a nonstarter.
22.86 MILES
Topped by the ruined medieval Chapel of St Michael, the iconic hump of Glastonbury Tor is visible for miles around, and provides Somerset with one of its…
28.37 MILES
Magnificent in warm, honey-coloured stone, Exeter's cathedral is one of Devon’s most impressive ecclesiastical sights. Dating largely from the 12th and…
28.4 MILES
A fixture on the city's cultural scene since Victorian times, this hulking red-brick museum recently received a £24 million revamp. It's a treasure trove…
27.99 MILES
Wells' gargantuan Gothic cathedral sits plumb in the centre of the city, surrounded by one of the largest cathedral closes in England. It was built in…
22.7 MILES
The scattered ruins of Glastonbury Abbey give little hint that this was once one of England's great seats of ecclesiastical power. It was torn down…
13.33 MILES
Beer's creamy chalk cliffs hint at the presence of a seam of high-quality masonry material called Beer stone. It's been used in countless famous buildings…
28.17 MILES
Prepare to crouch down, don a hard hat and possibly get spooked in what is the only publicly accessible system of its kind in England. These medieval…
21.7 MILES
Occupying a massive slab of horizon on the southern fringes of Dorchester, Maiden Castle is the largest and most complex Iron Age hill fort in Britain…
1. Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre
7.55 MILES
The centre has engaging displays about the Jurassic Coast and also runs between one and seven fossil-hunting walks a week (adult/child £8/4). They're…
8.09 MILES
This joyful, mini, indoor Jurassic Park overflows with fossilised remains; look out for belemnites, a plesiosaurus and an impressive locally found…
8.13 MILES
An atmospheric, creaking, grinding, 14th-century working watermill. Cafes, art galleries, a jewellery workshop and microbrewery sit alongside.
8.18 MILES
In 1814 local teenager Mary Anning found the first full ichthyosaur skeleton near Lyme Regis, propelling the town on to the world stage. An incredibly…
8.61 MILES
First built in the 13th century, Lyme's iconic, curling sea defences have been strengthened and extended over the years, and so don't present the elegant…
10.3 MILES
Looming above the village of Stoke-sub-Hamdon, this is the highest point in Somerset. It's served a variety of purposes – Iron Age hill fort, medieval…
11.36 MILES
Built in the 1590s for Sir Edward Phelips, a speaker of the House of Commons, Montacute contains some of the finest 16th- and 17th-century interiors in…
13.33 MILES
Beer's creamy chalk cliffs hint at the presence of a seam of high-quality masonry material called Beer stone. It's been used in countless famous buildings…