Blue Badge Guide on Dorset’s highlights for groups

It is my very good fortune to be a Blue Badge Guide for the South West of England. There is truly something for all tastes; spectacular coasts, wild moors and heathland, idyllic villages and fishing harbours, a rich history and heritage and a strong regional pride and identity.

One county that provides all of this and more is Dorset. The birthplace of poet and novelist Thomas Hardy and the heart of his ‘Wessex’, Dorset is awash with history - Roman, Saxon and Norman. Handsome market towns with 17th century architecture are linked by vast areas of rolling hills and ‘blasted heathland’ dotted with medieval villages.

The real jewel in Dorset’s crown is the UNESCO world heritage Jurassic Coast - hundreds of millions of years of geology on show with magnificent headlands, smugglers coves, fishing villages and sweeping beaches. And it’s all accessible along the England Coast Path.

My personal favourite is the Purbeck peninsula, almost an island, at the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast.

The pretty village of Corfe Castle boasts an atmospheric castle ruin and the scene of a ‘royal murder’, the Victorian resort of Swanage has a wonderful historic pier to stroll and Arne Nature Reserve is home to the newly returned White Tailed Fish Eagle.

My own personal heaven is to sit on Swyre Head, near Kingston, looking over the rugged coast stretching into the distance, eye to eye with birds of prey riding the thermals rising from the steep wooded valley below. Never the same view twice. Perfection.