A Local Knowledge map of Dorset

Dolphins disport themselves in the surf, dinosaurs lurk under the cliffs and an ogre brandishes his enormous member on the hillside. No doubt about it, Dorset is a place of marvels.

Famous landmarks abound: the Cerne Abbas giant, Corfe Castle, Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove. But what about the secret places, the ones the locals tend to keep for themselves? For example ... where can you find Dorset’s best fish soup? Where’s a good spot for a skinny-dip? And where do you go to live like a monk?

We asked a chef, a writer, a goalkeeper and a rock star to reveal all.

LESLEY WATERS
A TV regular, the chef runs her cookery school from 13th-century Chantmarle Manor, near Frome St Quintin

“Call me biased, but the village where I live, Evershot, is the best in Dorset. Only 200 people, just a neat stone street and a funny little church, still exactly as Thomas Hardy described it in Tess. Yet we’ve got a sensational bakery, a proper village shop, a cosy pub and, best of all, Summer Lodge Hotel.

“I can’t recommend that enough. It’s a spoil-yourself country-house hotel, and the service is the best ever – they manage to be completely friendly in a nonintrusive way. The bedrooms are flowery and luxurious, and Steven Titman, the head chef, is a talent. Last time, I had a slab of caramelised beef with garlic just oozing out of it – dreamy for autumn. I nearly passed out with joy.

“I love their spa, too, which has a pool in a kind of glasshouse, so you can swim at night under the stars.

“The other must-eat place in Dorset, much simpler, is the Hive Beach Cafe, right on the shore at Burton Bradstock. You get a big bowl of fish soup with really good bread, then walk it off on the beach.

We love to go on Boxing Day. You can’t book, so you have to queue – and people often do.”

Details: Summer Lodge Hotel (01935 482000, www.summerlodgehotel.co.uk) has doubles from £224, B&B. The Hive is on 01308 897070 (www.hivebeachcafe.co.uk).

IAN GILLAN
The original headbanger is still touring as front man with Deep Purple, 38 years after joining the band.

“I’ve lived in Lyme Regis for 12 years, and for me it’s always had a vibe: it’s uplifting, spiritual. I think the secret is the mix of people: fishermen, farmers, shopkeepers, landowners. It still feels like a working seaside town.

“I keep a small boat by the Cobb, the harbour wall made famous by my neighbour, John Fowles, in the French Lieutenant’s Woman, and my daughter’s boyfriend takes day-trippers out on pleasure rides, or for mackerel-fishing.

“Every time I’m home, I go exploring on the Undercliff. It’s this bizarre landslip zone teetering above the cliffs, with huge chasms and gullies, and remnants of lost roads and fallen cottages. It’s like nowhere else you’ve ever walked, and I’ve written so many songs there.

“You feel you’re in territory where no human being has stepped before. I even keep a few supplies under a boulder on the cliff edge – fire-making stuff, corned beef and wire wool – in case I ever decide to stay out there for good ... ”

Details: the South West Coast Path runs west along the Undercliff from Lyme Regis: take OS Explorer map 116. For trips on Ian’s boat, the Sunbeam, call 07974 753287.

DAVID SOLE
Based near Axminster, David is a professional fossil-hunter on the Jurassic Coast

“The fossiling season has just begun: November to April is best, when winter storms crash in, exposing new finds all the time. My happiest hunting ground is around Lyme Regis, but the cliffs are dodgy – you need to be careful. Beginners should start by visiting the Heritage Coast Centre, in Charmouth.

“For somewhere strange and really special, though, I recommend Worth Matravers, west of Swanage. It’s a castaway village on a deadend road, and, to get there, you drive past Corfe Castle and through the old Purbeck marble workings.

“The village tavern, the Square & Compass, is a real find. It’s got log fires, weird sculptures in the garden, chickens clucking all around, and beer and cider tapped straight from the barrel. But its best character feature is the landlord, Charlie Newman, who has set aside one room as a homespun fossil museum.

“He’s an avid collector, and there’s lovely stuff: beautiful ammonites, bits of ichthyosaurs, even an almost-complete pliosaur – a ferocious marine reptile with vicious teeth.

“To see where he finds them, you need to hike out to St Aldhelm’s, a 1,000-year-old chapel on the tip of the headland, with the tide-race foaming past below. Talk about otherworldly ... ”

Details: the Heritage Coast Centre (01297 560772, www.charmouth.org) runs family-friendly fossil walks all winter; £7 £3 children. The Square & Compass is on 01929 439229.

BOB WILSON
The Arsenal goalkeeping great and former BBC anchorman now runs the Willow Foundation, helping young adults with life-threatening illnesses

“As a goalie, I always tried to be in the right place at the right time – but I messed up on that score when I sold my beach hut on Hengistbury Head. They now fetch £150,000.

“I can still see the headland from the balcony of my house, and it’s my favourite place, just ahead of Bermuda. Hengistbury is the curling spit of heather, marsh and lily ponds that encloses Christchurch harbour, and for me it embodies the magic of the British coast.

“I used to run round the headland at dawn, then jump in the sea for a skinny-dip.

Now my wife and I walk or cycle out there, and the further you go, the more remote it feels, especially in a winter storm.

“On the Christchurch side, you see fish stores and yachts, and the kids crabbing on Mudeford Quay. On the Solent side, you’re staring across the vastness of the ocean. We have a tiny day boat here, and we’re often joined by dolphins. This summer we chugged across to the Isle of Wight with a dozen of them leaping and playing alongside us all the way.”

Details: www.hengistbury-head.co.uk. Bob recommends lunch at the Beach House Cafe (01202 423474, www.beachhousecafe.co.uk).

BABETTE COLE
The writer and illustrator has 72 anarchic children’s books to her name, including Mummy Laid an Egg, Princess Smartypants and her latest creation, Dr Dog

“I live in a forgotten piece of countryside, the Blackmoor Vale, tucked beyond Cerne Abbas and the Dorset Downs. We see a few walkers – but more would come if they knew what they were missing.

“I go riding every morning from my house through an arcadian landscape. Holnest Park, where Sir Walter Raleigh once came to hunt, is dotted with copses that each look like a Stonehenge of oak trees: very magical, full of drifts of gold just now, and bluebells in spring. Then I follow the sound of the church bells to Hilfield, where there is a haunted friary in a crook of the downs.

“It’s a converted hunting lodge, with its own chapel, and real, live Franciscan monks in hassocks and sandals come out and give you tea and cake. They’ll put you up, too: you can go on retreat there and fish in the friary ponds. It’s idyllic.

“At the very least, you should look in at the tiny medieval church up the road, which the monks tend. You can go to evensong on Sunday, and it’s beautiful.”

Details: Babette’s ride starts from Hermitage, south of Sherborne off the A352. The Friary of St Francis at Hilfield (01300 341345, www.franciscans.org.uk/h-hilfield.html) has a shop selling candles and cards, and takes in guests at £27 a night.

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