Travel
Far From The Madding Crowd…
Tempted though she is to keep her home-county’s hotspots under the radar, West Dorset local (and sought-after travel writer) Rosalyn Wikeley can’t resist sharing this wild and wonderful Hardy country with Collagerie. Just don’t tell everyone else…
A Note From Rosalyn Wikeley
Forget kiss-me-quick Bournemouth or Sandbanks’ suburban sprawl, this is wild, Thomas Hardy country, where agricultural rhythms hold sway, dishevelled Sunday markets showcase coastal plunder, and fossil-studded cliffs meet shingle beaches. As the only English county not defaced by motorways, many of West Dorset’s villages and towns retain their time-warp charm, and in winter the countryside resembles a classic Christmas card. Then, abruptly, woodlands spring to life and before you know it picnics are being lugged to sun-drenched spots along the Jurassic Coast. Unlike the Cotswolds or Gloucestershire, West Dorset doesn’t ruffle its feathers – far from it. Its lucky locals like to keep their coordinates quiet, and as one of them, I’m praying my friends and neighbours forgive my treachery in time. Some things are simply too good not to share.
Where To Stay in West Dorset
Seaside Boarding House
From the team behind Soho’s Groucho Club, the Seaside Boarding House is a white-washed Edwardian beach house overlooking the Jurassic coast, with a rosé-ready sun-trap terrace. Seafood sits centre stage here: monster crabs (well-worth the Herculean effort to disassemble), West Bay lobster, oysters pepped up with clever sauces, mussels you mop your mouth like a child for. Upstairs, the Boarding House’s rooms are as classically coastal as the light-filled restaurant – some with claw-footed baths. But the best dip here is the morning plunge in the sea after a long walk along the flower-fringed cliffs.
Price: From £235 per night
Aller Dorset, Lower Antsy
Having found herself in Wind in the Willows-esque Lower Antsy after a fast-paced, high fashion PR job, Cat Earp leveraged her design savvy and press contacts to place four dialled-up staycation huts firmly on the UK lifestyle agenda. It wasn’t a hard sell. The huts – Littledown, Kittylands, Zoulands and Links – are smartly dressed in prairie-girl prints, glossy tiles and high-end woodwork. It’s a small-but-mighty act: heritage power showers, Egyptian cotton sheets, haute country-style kitchens all squeezed into three heavenly huts. Pack your swimsuit for lake dips from the pontoon, and book the local fare (beyond the complimentary breakfast hamper) to throw over the firepit grill while nursing a cool glass of Langham’s sparkling wine.
Price: From £185 per night
LOUMA Farm and Retreat
New openings are few and far between in West Dorset (just how the locals would like it to stay). So fancy farmstay LOUMA came as quite the surprise with its pricey overhaul and five-star-style design. But with views across the vale towards the Jurassic coast and 100 acres of farmland and vineyards to roam around in, LOUMA is a heavenly exhale from the concrete jungle, and one that soon tugs its guests into West Country rhythms. These include riding at the on-site stables, wine tasting at the vineyard, meeting flocks of sheep, hovering above a forest floor on a trail walk and, of course, the swishy perks: saunas, swimming, deep-tissue massages, sprogs zipping around in diddy Range Rovers… While it all sounds a little Soho Farmhouse, it’s far from it. LOUMA is more dawn chorus than late-night scene.
Price: from £530 per night for two guests, inclusive of breakfast, lunch and dinner
Western Manor Park Farm
With a stellar CV – from restaurants in Italy, via The Fat Duck, to her own award-winning gastro-pub, The Kingham Plough in Oxfordshire – Emily Lampson scooted South West to Western Manor Park in 2017, bringing her family with her. From here she hosts foodie events in a beautifully renovated barn (think themed supper clubs, forage and feasts, art and yoga masterclasses) and those lucky enough to nab tickets can hunker down in one of the two heritage-fresh en-suite bedrooms for 1-3 nights. Parents’ tot monitors stretch to the barn (so no need for a babysitter) and the farm is in plum position for Jurassic Coast rambles or treasure hunts in Sherborne and Bridport antique markets.
Rooms available with event bookings
Where to eat in West Dorset
Brassica, Beaminster
In postcard-pretty Beaminster, Cass Titcombe (of The Cow in Westbourne Grove fame) and his wife Louise Chidgey (ex-Conran) pooled their culinary and curator skills into a cosy, mullion-windowed restaurant on the town square. Brassica was a first for this part of Dorset, shimmying England’s finest pantry produce into tasty Mediterranean-inspired plates – rich pork shoulder rigatoni, spinach and ricotta malfatti, cuttlefish orecchiette with crevettes and fennel – all in smart yet unpretentious fashion. They’re now open for breakfast and lunch (Tuesday till Saturday), with a Friday and Saturday supper menu that shifts each week with whatever the farmers and fishermen swing in. It’s worth browsing Louise’s curation of high end chocolate and gorgeous gifts presented in the main restaurant, along with the modern art.
Peppina, Poundbury
You only really know about Peppina if you live here, or if you follow its gregarious Sicilian owner Angelo Fishcera and his team baking monster sourdough and ricotta-loaded brioche on Instagram. Tucked away in one of Poundbury’s many palace-pastiche courtyards (courtesy of our King’s Georgiana architectural appetite), the main café feels wonderfully utilitarian… and Sicilian. Plain tables scatter an industrial room, with a pergola-covered terrace and, behind the counter, an industrial-style bakery where pizza, sourdough and Sicilian pastry masterclasses are held. Browse the counter for pistachio cannoli, baci, arancini, and crispy, salty then abruptly fluffy focaccia filled with Dorset’s best cold cuts and cheeses. If you’re in a rush, they can box it all up, picnic style.
Catch At The Old Fish Market, Weymouth
Big-city cheffing skills meet Dorset coastal bounty. Catch At The Old Fish Market fills out the characterful Victorian bones of the old fishmarket on Weymouth’s harbour, where chains clank and gulls wail. Enter via a fishmonger, stepping through a nondescript door that could pass as the service route, up the stairs to ex-Pollen Street Social Mike Naidoo’s Michelin starred joint – a paean to West Country land-and-sea treasure, but mainly the fisherman’s daily, hourly haul (his boat bobs impatiently right outside in the harbour). Some lunches may feature an imaginatively grilled and seasoned monster seabass or brill, preceded by mackerel tartare in buttermilk, Portland crab dumplings, a crispy cod cheek in hollandaise, perhaps. The Langham’s sparkling wine is a given (pitched perfectly with the tasting menu), while the puddings (say, ginger cake with mascarpone or fluffy strawberry baba) nearly always feature famously rich West Country cream.
Crab House Café, Weymouth
A local favourite, Crab House Café is not going to win any design prizes but its seafood (stellar) and Chesil beach views (poetic) pull in a full crowd year round. Come for plump, Tabasco-loaded oysters, Portland crab, whole plaice roasted with anchovy butter and Somerset cider onions, and meaty turbot drizzled in lemon.
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The Parlour, Burton Bradstock
The antithesis of Soho Farmhouse’s polish, The Parlour sits on working Bredy Farm just outside Burton Bradstock, with pretty valley views and a soft, scruffy courtyard. Not only do they serve the best pizza in the county, (heaving with local veg, meat and cheese, and baked in an enormous woodfired oven), the menus lean into a Tuscan theme that pairs beautifully with West Dorset’s blue-chip produce. Expect rich ragus, thick-cut lamb chops with porchetta, Tuscan fish stews with mussels and clams, and an Aperol Spritz in the sunshine.
Lilac, Lyme Regis
Harriet Mansell’s second opening on Lyme Regis’ Broad Street is officially the pastel-hued, seaside town’s foodie pilgrimage spot. Previously a wine cellar, the restaurant’s subdued, earthy tones are instantly shoulder-lowering, and the small plates wildly delicious. Mansell’s famous foraging muscle is duly flexed for a wild-flower, herby, flavour-packed menu. Come from Thursday to Sunday for mussels with white wine and sourdough, pork belly with kohlrabi remoulade and rhubarb ketchup, stilton and ricotta stuffed courgette flower with Blackbury Farm honey and hazelnuts… and the likes. And for the herb-infused happy hour, with bar snacks.
Parnham Park restaurant, Beaminster
Just outside Midsummer Murder-esque Beaminster, Parnham House sits rather resplendently and largely… charred. The house was severely damaged in a 2017 fire with tragic consequences, and has since fallen into the ambitious palms of James and Sophie Perkins (the couple behind the eccentric Anynhoe Park). While sweating to bring the Elizabethan pile back to its former glory, the design duo have opened a peppy restaurant and cocktail bar, housed in a former greenhouse. Far from West Dorset’s Ye Olde pub scene, or its easy-going farm-to-table renovated barns, Parnham Park’s restaurant brings a little cosmopolitan energy to the sticks. Expect locally charged small plates such as torched mackerel lifted with ginger, courgettes in labneh and West Country beef carpaccio washed down with Parnham Pintxos… and Stephen Fry’s dulcet tones in the loo.
What to do in West Dorset
Bridport antiques
If hunting down yesteryear trinkets is your thing, Bridport antiques market will fill out your Sunday morning plans. Held in a cluster of barns and old workshops, there’s a Dickensian whiff to it – fires lit in front of rickety furniture shops, vintage silk gowns hanging from old brick walls, wrought-iron arches and stone statues recovered from decaying country piles. There’s a West Country hippie energy to it, though you’ll hear plenty of global accents in Soulshine café round the corner (Bridport has recently become something of an enclave for London artists fleeing the soot spicy and spicy rents).
Head to the beach
West Dorset’s beaches are unsullied patches of the Jurassic coastline – a mix of shingle and sand with surreal blue lagoons and a rich history of fishing and smuggling. Popular scenic spots – such as Hive Beach in Burton Bradstock, Lulworth Cove and West Bay – can soon fill up with summer crowds. For a more peaceful morning swim, locals lug their towels and picnic boxes to Ringstead Bay near Osmington Mills for an undisturbed morning swim, take their walking boots to the stretch of Chesil beach off Abbotsbury, or bring a book to Mupe Bay (not far from the Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door crowds) for a relaxed read.
Art, flowers and cake in Abbotsbury
Still owned by the Melrose family, Abbotsbury is a filmset-worthy village and estate that spills onto the Jurassic Coast. Its main tourist pulls are the swannery and botanical gardens. But there’s an arty enclave by the old toll barn, where Clare Hawkes exhibits her oil paintings (among other artists, photographers and makers). Browse the jewellery, paintings and printed kaftans, then scuttle across to the cafe for West Dorset’s best bakes, or uphill to Abbey Farm Flowers (think a vegetable patch filled with flowers and lined with wrought iron tables for second helpings of Dorset apple cake). Bring your walking boots for a ramble up to the old abbey and meander through the village itself for ice cream and time-warp workshops flogging their creations.
Langham Wine Estate
Having won a Sparkling Wine of the Year award from IWSC in 2019, Langham Wine has thrust West Dorset’s chalky, vineyard-friendly soil onto the viticultural radar. After a self-guided or deeper-dive tour of the vineyard, followed by tastings, linger for lunch or cake at the café. The Dutch Barn hosts various jazz and themed evenings throughout the summer, pairing acts with their Chardonnays and pinot noirs. Discover More
Seatown’s sauna on the beach
Seatown beach will fail to tickle the Time Out crowd who beeline for Bournemouth’s blonde sand when London warms up. It’s wild and wispy, coarse and crisp with a sudden drop from the shingly shallows. But it’s well endowed with a traditional, tavern-style pub with a beer garden, and a sauna parked in plum position for a sweaty dash to the cold, frothy waves (you’ll receive a cool bucket of water in winter). Consider it for the morning after Langham’s or indulging the wine lists of one of West Dorset’s best restaurants – it beats any IV drip for a hangover cleanse.
Mapperton House's gardens
The pretty Elizabethan seat of the Earl of Sandwich, Mapperton House is one of those rare piles yet to slip through the hands of its heirs. The gardens are a peaceful maze of topiary and English cottage flowers, and they’ve recently opened a little woodland play area for children. Check the website for the Friday yoga classes in a refurnished barn (instructed by the lady of the house herself) and, if not pairing a visit with Beaminster’s Brassica or Parnham House restaurant, stay for tea and cake in the cafe.
Sherborne flower market
For a highly Instagrammable afternoon, head to Black Shed flowers at Blackmarsh Farm in Sherborne. As flower farmers and florists, Paul and Helen Stickland are famous for their wedding blooms, but you can marvel at their beds of Dahlias, Delpiniums, Tulips and Sweet Peas, rounded off with a fresh farm-produce lunch at the cafe (and go karts and trampolines for children). It’s worth browsing their website for workshops and classes, and doubling down on the horticultural spirit with a trip to Sherborne Castle and its pretty gardening-centre cafe.
