Page 155 - demo

Dorchester to Salisbury

[Return to the index for The West]

From Dorchester to Salisbury there are, as usual two options:

1: The quick way – straight up the A354. That will get you from Dorchester to Salisbury in a bit
over an hour. Total distance 44 miles. Route 5 on the map.

2: The much more interesting way – through Sherborne. 61 miles, about 1 1/2 hours excluding
stops. Route 4 on the map.

Click here for an interactive map of the area

Main attractions along the way are

Sherborne: Sherborne Castle in this lovely little town was built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1594.
Sherborne Abbey is famous for its beautiful fan vaulting and a Saxon doorway which has survived
from the time the abbey was founded by St. Aldhelm in AD 705. Useful websites: Sherborne
Town, Sherborne in Dorset. Also worth a look are the Almshouses and the Sherborne Steam and
Waterwheel Centre.

The Cerne Abbas Giant. (Pictured) The figure of a naked man carrying a
club cut into the chalk hills – said to have been there for about 1500 years,
but more likely to date from the 17th century. More from Wikipedia . . .

Dorchester

If you have ever read any of Thomas Hardy’s novels or watched the Tv
movie The Mayor Of Casterbridge, then you will recognised the towns and
landscape in this region. Indeed, Dorchester is the setting for the
Casterbridge novel and Tv movie.

Maiden Castle is the largest hill fort in England, covering about 45 acres. It was first occupied in
3000BCE and contains a complex arrangement of ditches and ramparts. It was continuously
occupied until attacked by the Romans in the 4th century. A Roman temple was then built on the
site and the foundations are still visible today. Free.