3 Best Sights in Sherborne, The South

As much as the golden hamstone (a type of limestone) exterior, majestic tower, and fine flying buttresses impress, the glory of Sherborne Abbey is the delicate 15th-century fan vaulting that extends the length of the soaring nave and choir. Some features from the original 8th-century cathedral, like a Saxon doorway in the northwest corner, still remain. If you're lucky, you might hear "Great Tom," one of the heaviest bells in the world, pealing out from the bell tower. Free guided tours lasting about an hour are offered from April through November on Tuesday and Thursday (10:30 am) and Wednesday and Friday (2 pm); tours are also offered Saturday (10:30 am) and Sunday (11:15 am) from early July through early September. From December through March, tours need to be made by prior arrangement.

The original 13th-century Sherborne Castle was demolished in the English Civil War, at which point this house, built by Sir Walter Raleigh on the site of an adjacent early Tudor hunting lodge, acquired the name. Raleigh made it his home for 10 years, adding the four hexagonal turrets topped with heraldic beasts in 1600. Sir John Digby acquired the house in 1671, adding four wings to create the current "H" shape. The castle's interiors cover a variety of periods, including Tudor, Jacobean, and Georgian. The Victorian Gothic rooms are notable for their splendid plaster ceiling moldings. Free one-hour tours are available with booked timed slot. After admiring the extensive collections of Meissen and Asian porcelain, stroll around the lake and 45 acres of landscaped grounds (a designated English Heritage Grade I site), the work of Capability Brown. The house is less than a mile southeast of town.

This small market town, the model for "Shaston" in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, sits on a ridge overlooking Blackmore Vale—you can catch a sweeping view of the surrounding countryside from the top of Gold Hill, a steep street lined with cottages so picturesque it was used in an iconic TV commercial to evoke the quintessential British village of yore. There's an information hub in Morrisons Daily Supermarket on Bell Street. Shaftesbury is 20 miles west of Salisbury and 15 miles east of Sherborne.