
Athelhampton House
Dorchester, Dorset
The Great Hall was built in 1485 by Sir William Martyn. The Arts and Crafts Garden with its enclosed vistas, garden buildings, mounts and terraces was created by Francis Inigo Thomas for Alfred Cart de Lafontaine who bought the estate in 1891.

Compton Acres
Poole, Dorset
Created in 1920s by Thomas William Simpson, the garden reflects Simpson’s love of travel. There is a circular route around the garden which travels through Egypt, the sub-Tropics, Italy, America and Japan.

Cranborne Manor House
Wimborne, Dorset
The Manor House is surrounded by its garden which was first laid out by John Tradescant in seventeenth century and restored in twentieth century by Lady Salisbury.

Durlston Country Park
Swanage, Dorset
Created by George Burt in nineteenth century, there are various walks along the coast with viewing platforms, benches and a Dell originally planted with ferns and hardy exotics.

Highcliffe
Christchurch, Dorset
The house was built between 1831 and 1835 in Gothic Revival style by Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay. Little remains of the garden although Dorset County Council is carrying out a restoration programme.

Kingston Lacy
Wimborne Minster, Dorset
After the destruction of Corfe Castle in the English Civil War, the Bankes family built Kingston Lacy in 1663. The garden was laid out in Franco-Dutch style but nothing of the original garden survives today.

Kingston Maurward
Dorchester, Dorset
The thirty-five acre formal gardens lie within a parkland setting and include the Brick Garden, the Red Garden, the Crown Garden and two National Collections of Penstemon and Salvia.

Lulworth Castle
Wareham, Dorset
Originally built as a hunting lodge, the Castle has recently been restored. It sits within its own parkland but nothing of the earlier seventeenth century garden remains today.

Mapperton
Beaminster, Dorset
The garden was created by Mrs Ethel Labouchere in memory of her husband who died in 1916 and includes a Fountain Court, topiary, grottoes, Pool Garden and arboretum.

Minterne
Dorchester, Dorset
Minterne House was designed by Leonard Stokes in 1904-6 for Edward Henry Trafalgar Digby, 10th Baron Digby. It stands on the site of an earlier house within an eighteenth century landscape that was laid out by Admiral Robert Digby….

Sherborne Castle
Sherborne, Dorset
The formal gardens are situated near the Castle while a path round the lake leads to the Maple Garden, the Cascade, Pope’s seat, the Folly and the Clarevoire from where the New Castle can be seen over the water in one direction and the twelfth century Old Castle in the other.

Springhead
Shaftesbury, Dorset
Rolf Gardiner bought Springhead in 1931 with the aim of creating self-supporting communities returning to the land. His daughter Rosalind Richards has continued his work in music and the arts and runs courses from the house; Richards has also restored the garden.