Dorset; Hidden Country Houses and Gardens

Independent arrival in Evershot in the early afternoon to settle into your room at the five star Summer Lodge Country Hotel. Coach to Sandford Orcas Manor, for a private visit to one of the most enchanting and unaltered Tudor manor houses of Dorset. Return to Evershot for a group dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Leaving Evershot by coach, we stop for coffee and view the dramatic ruins of Corfe Castle on the way to Creech Grange, a romantic house in a secluded valley setting. Built in the Elizabethan period, it was partially remodelled by the important Dorchester architect, Francis Cartwright c.1740, whilst the East Front (1846-7) is a sensitive early example of Elizabethan revival. We have lunch at Minterne, a sophisticated Arts and Crafts house, built 1904-6 for Lord Digby, by Leonard Stokes. The magnificent woodland garden, particularly beautiful in the spring, lies in a valley landscaped in the 18th century with chains of lakes, cascades and streams, and contains a unique collection of Himalayan azaleas and rhododendrons and many fine and rare shrubs and trees. Return to Evershot.

Our morning will be spent at St Giles House, Wimborne, one of Dorset’s most fascinating country houses. The ancestral home of the Ashley-Cooper family (who became the Earls of Shaftesbury) for over 600 years, its architectural development is linked to the personalities and tastes of the family. After a period of decline in the late 20th century, the house and park have been brought back life by the current 12th Earl, and his restoration of the house has earned a number of national accolades. In the park, an exquisite 18th-century Shell Grotto is not to be missed. After lunch, we visit magical Cranborne Manor (exterior only), rebuilt 1608-20 as a hunting lodge by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and surrounded by beautiful gardens, where features of the 17th-century layout by John Tradescant survive. In the late afternoon, we return to our hotel where our concludes at c. 6.00pm.