Dorset & the Countryside

Corfe Castle, the Purbeck ridge, market towns and chalk downland, all within an hour of the harbour.

Poole sits at the edge of one of the better-preserved rural counties in England, and the countryside starts within four minutes of Sandbanks.

The Isle of Purbeck

Not actually an island, but a peninsula cut off by the sea, the harbour and the Frome. Corfe Castle is its centrepiece: a ruined castle in a gap in the chalk ridge, slighted in the Civil War and still dominating everything around it. The Swanage Railway runs steam trains through it.

The market towns

Wimborne Minster has the twin-towered church and the chained library. Wareham is a Saxon walled town on the Frome, at the back of the harbour.

Walking country

The chalk ridge, the downland and the heath give you walking very different from the coast path. See walking and trails.

Getting there

The chain ferry from Sandbanks is the shortcut into Purbeck. See Studland and the Jurassic Coast.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

What is there to see in Dorset near Poole?

Corfe Castle and the Isle of Purbeck, Wareham, Wimborne Minster, the chalk ridge and downland, and the Jurassic Coast. Most are within an hour, and several within half of that.

How do you get to Corfe Castle from Poole?

Across the harbour mouth on the Sandbanks chain ferry, then a short drive or a ride on the Swanage Railway steam line. By road without the ferry it is a longer route round through Wareham.

Is the Isle of Purbeck an island?

Not strictly. It is a peninsula, bounded by the sea, Poole Harbour and the River Frome, which is close enough to an island for the name to have stuck.

Planning your visit?

Where to stay in Poole

Sandbanks hotels, harbourside flats a street back from the Quay and the quieter beds out at Hamworthy and Broadstone, with the areas each one suits.

Where to stay →