Houses and Gardens
Mapperton House & Gardens
Spectacular formal valley gardens beside Jacobean manor used as a location in the 2015 film Far From the Madding Crowd and voted ‘The Nation’s Finest Manor House’ by Country Life.
With a formal Italianate garden with its formal statues, herbaceous borders, topiary and grottoes.
Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
Voted by HHA Garden of the Year 2012. “One of the finest Gardens I have ever visited” Alan Titchmarsh. Rare and exotic plants thrive in this sheltered wooded valley.
Impressive displays of camellias, magnolias, rhododendrons and hydrangeas. There is also a formal walled garden.
Athelhampton House
Near Dorchester, HHA- “one of the outstanding manor houses in England.” Set in 20 acres of 19th century Italianate gardens
Sherborne Castle and Gardens
16th-century castle with lavish furnishings and fine art plus huge gardens and a lake.
Forde Abbey
Right on the Dorset/Somerset border close to Chard is Forde Abbey a former 
Cistercian monastery and 30 acres of gardens landscaped in the 18th century.
As well as cascading ponds and the highest powered fountain in England there are herbaceous borders, a bog garden, rock garden, arboretum and walled kitchen garden.