Poole Harbour (said to be the second largest natural harbour in the world after Sydney) has been a working port for many hundreds of years, though the port has declined somewhat as the shallow water cannot take the largest ships. The harbour is noted for its ecology: supporting saltmarsh, mudflats and an internationally important population of wintering waterfowl.

Located in Poole Harbour is the 500 acre Brownsea Island, the base for the very first Boy Scout camp. The island is still used by scouts, but today it is preserved as a natural wildlife habitat and reserve administered by the National Trust. Brownsea is notable for its large population of red squirrels, rare in the rest of England. The nature reserve at Brownsea covers 180 acres, and is a popular daytrip destination from Bournemouth and Poole. Regular boat service also let visitors explore Poole Harbour and up the River Frome to the old market town of Wareham.

Today the port is amongst other things the home of Sunseeker, manufacturers of luxury yachts, and the departure point for ferries (Brittany Ferries and Condor Ferries) to France and the Channel Islands. The quayside and harbour was the place from which some ships departed for the D-Day landings of World War II. 

The Blue Pool at Furzebrook was once a claypit, which accounts fora rare phenomenon that has attracted visitors from across the world ever since it opened to the public in 1935. It retains miniscule, light diffracting particles of clay in the water, causing a spectrum of colour variations, sometimes from minute to minute. Now deep turquoise, now emerald green, the Pool is a constantly changing delight to the eye.

Website: www.bluepooluk.com

Corfe Castle is a ruin, but what a ruin! Soaring above Corfe village, the early Norman castle is an unforgettable sight. Corfe Castle was built in the reign of William the Conqueror to control passage through the Purbeck Hills via a road between Swanage and Wareham.

Building first began in the 1080's and over the centuries several kings contributed to its development, adding a large keep, defensive ditches and curtain walls around the inner and outer baileys.

Old Harry Rocks at Handfast Point are a small but characteristic set of coastal landforms off Ballard Down at the eastern end of the Jurassic Coastworld heritage site near Swanage in Dorset. The rocks include a collection of islands, a natural arch, stacks and stumps on a wave cut platform formed by erosion of the chalk cliffs. The rocks are part of a once continuous band of chalk which ran through south Dorset, Ballard Down and the Isle of Wight, part of the southern England Chalk Formation.

How to get there?
Take bus 142/143 (Wilts & Dorset) from Poole. Click here for time table.

The New Forest is a large national park in Hampshire, in the south of England, UK. Despite its name, the New Forest is neither new nor a forest. It is over 900 years old and less than half of it is actually woodland.

The Forest is some 93,000 acres (145 square miles) in area and is the largest unenclosed area in Southern England. The New Forest consists of a mixture of native deciduous and coniferous woodland, heaths, bogs, streams and estuaries. Ponies, cattle and pigs are allowed to roam freely, but are privately owned and grazed under an ancient system or grazing rights for the "Commoners", under the control of Verderers and Agisters.

The best way to enjoy the New Forest is on Bicycle. If you do not have your own you can rent some in the village of Brockenhurst. The best way to get there is by Train. Brockenhurst is half way between Bournemouth and Southampton.

The Cerne Abbas Giant or the 'Rude Man' is the largest hillfigure in Britain, he (the figure's gender is beyond doubt) is one of two representations of the human form, the other being the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex. The giant, carved in solid lines from the chalk bedrock measures in at 180 feet high, and carries a huge knobbled club, which measures 120 feet in length. 

The giant's obvious sexuality and virility was put to use in fertility folk magic. Local women who wanted to conceive would spend a night alone on the hillside - most productively within the confines of his giant phallus, and young couples would make love on the giant to ensure conception.

How to get there?
The easiest is by train to Dorchester, and then First Southern National run a (limited) bus service between Dorchester and Sherborne which stops in Cerne Abbas. Details from 01935 476 233.

Opening Times: 1 April – 31 October daily, except Mon & Fri.

(Open Bank Hol Mon) 11.00am-4.30pm last admission (on Sat Castle interior from 2pm)

Admission Prices: Gardens only £4.50 Adult/Senior,

Castle & Gardens £8.50 Adults £8.00 Senior

Children free (max 4 per adult)

Website: http://www.sherbornecastle.com

Opening times: Open Daily 7.15am – 6.15pm

Admission Prices: Suggested donations: Adults £5.00, Senior/Student £4.25, Child £3.00, Family£12.00.

Tower tour charge: Adult £5.50, concessions £4.50

TEL: 01722 555120