A Kaleidoscope of Coast & Country in Dorset

Check in to our hotel in the afternoon. Later, we enjoy a welcome drink reception hosted by our tour manager.

For our first visit we make our way to the Minterne estate, ancestral home of the Churchill and Digby families since 1620 and nestled in a peaceful valley. As the house is closed to the public, today we discover the stunning gardens on a guided tour with the current owner, Lord Digby. Resplendent with Himalayan rhodedendrons and azaleas, cherries, maples and rare trees, and with peaceful little lakes, trickling waterfalls and gently bubbling streams too, it really is the perfect setting for a tranquil stroll before we enjoy lunch here.

Our next stop takes us to lovely Athelhampton for a tour of Athelhampton House, referred to as one of England’s ‘most important medieval manor houses’. The site of Athelhampton House has been populated since the Saxon era and is even mentioned in the Domesday Book where it is known as ‘Pidele’, meaning there is a wealth of history to uncover during our guided tour, complete with refreshments.

Today we start our day with a visit to Dorset’s oldest inhabited house, Moignes Court, the home of the Cree family since the 1820s. This deceptively modest 12^th-century manor house in the village of Owermoigne is an impressive example of medieval architecture, with only a small number of alterations made to the structure due to a fire in 1880. There are many historical highlights for us to discover during our visit, including a collection of 13^th-century windows, a first-floor court room and even a moat! The medieval grounds are still exquisitely well-preserved and have been repurposed by the current owners of a wild living initiative, providing charming holiday accommodation and education spaces for members of the community and beyond.

Next, we visit Warmwell House during our June departure, an immaculately maintained 17^th-century Jacobean Manor in what would be the heart of Thomas Hardy’s fictional Wessex country. Surrounded by acres of landscaped gardens and not usually open to the public, Warmwell is a quintessentially English manor house complete with sophisticated wooden interiors, elegant occasion rooms and leisure facilities including a hedge maze and a tennis court. On our exclusive guided tour, we are given the chance to explore this wonderful property and discover the storied history that lies within.

On our July departure, we instead enjoy a guided tour of Sherbourne Castle, built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1594. A family home since 1617, a visit here is like strolling through four centuries of different decorative styles, featuring nationally significant collections of furniture, paintings and porcelain. We learn all about its Tudor heritage, how George III visited with The Queen and the three Princesses in 1789 and its use as a hospital during the First World War. Outside is a beautiful example of a quintessentially English landscape garden and was one of Capability Brown's first commissions, which survives largely unaltered today.

After dinner this evening, we enjoy an interesting themed talk from a guest speaker.

We travel to the parish of Mapperton for our visit to Mapperton House, owned by the Countess of Sandwich, Julie Montagu, who kindly leads us on an exclusive guided tour. With its meticulous gardens and eagle-topped pillars that flank the pathway to the entrance, first impressions of this historic treasure can’t help but make you feel as though you’ve been pulled into the pages of a romance novel. Called ‘the nation’s finest manor house’ by Country Life Magazine, the Grade 1 listed house dates back to the 11^th century and has been built upon extensively throughout the centuries, with many of the features on display today having been established during the house’s reconstruction in the second half of the 16^th century.

Lying on the Jurassic coast, surrounded by green fields and spectacular scenery, the Grade 1 listed Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens is a fascinating highlight of the county, whose legacy stretches back to its founding in the middle of the 18^th century. Thanks to the microclimate afforded to the property by the surrounding woodland valley, there is a great variety of rare and exotic plant species on display here, all of which are maintained without the use of greenhouses which would normally be required for plants of this kind. We take a special look through this delightful collection and the Swannery. From the local camellia groves and rhododendrons to the formal and informal gardens and the specially curated climate zones that exhibit specimens from different topographical environments within a few steps of one another, there’s no shortage of botanical wonders to discover.

After breakfast, check out of the hotel for the journey home.