The excavated footprint of the Benedictine abbey founded by Alfred the Great, now a walled garden of herbs and orchard on the hilltop above Gold Hill. Dogs on leads are welcome, and there is a gift shop and refreshments. Small site, twenty minutes to half an hour unless you sit in the garden.
These are the parts only the business can add. We check the dog policy and stamp the date — photos, prices and their own words are theirs to put in, and this listing is waiting for them.
What it looks like with a dog in the picture.
Entry, parking, whether the dog goes free.
Can the dog actually sleep here, and what does it cost.
Which parts of the site, and whether leads are required.
Claiming fills every box above, and lets you reply to reviews when they open. £15 a month, no contract, and it never changes the verdict — the stamp stays ours.
A 2.8-mile hour-and-a-half loop over the double summit of the wooded hill that rises out of Blackmore Vale, 230 acres of ancient small-leaved lime coppice with bluebells in May and long views west from the clearings. The main east to west track is stoned but steep near the entrance gate, and the side paths are grass, wet and genuinely muddy in winter. Start from the free Woodland Trust car park off New Lane three miles west of Shaftesbury, room for about twenty-five cars, with a two-metre height barrier at the entrance that rules out high vans. Dogs are welcome in Woodland Trust woods and this one is unfenced from any road, which makes it good off-lead ground; roe deer are everywhere, so recall matters.
A 2.4-mile hour-and-a-quarter circuit of a hilltop town, down the cobbles of Gold Hill, round the base of the greensand escarpment through St James, and back up to the abbey terrace and Castle Hill for a fifty-mile view over Blackmore Vale. Steep in both directions with 130 metres of climb, cobbles and steps that punish paws and knees alike. Start at the Bell Street or Coppice Street pay and display, both a couple of minutes from Park Walk; the town is on the bus route from Salisbury and Blandford. Leads for the cobbles and the terrace, where the drop is unfenced in places, and note that dogs must be on leads in public gardens under the Dorset order. There is a water bowl at several of the High Street cafés.
Rebuilt Georgian coaching inn on the Commons in the middle of Shaftesbury, with sixteen rooms and a serious kitchen. Dogs are welcome in the bar, where the full menu is served, the conservatory, the terrace and every one of the bedrooms, but not in the restaurant; the charge is £20 per dog per stay. Dogs must not be left alone in the room unless crated.
Nobody has written one for Shaftesbury Abbey Museum and Garden. If you have been with the dog, you would be the first — and the first review is the one everybody reads.
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