Shaftesbury
Rising more than 200m above the Blackmore Vale at its northern end, Shaftesbury is the highest town in Dorset and one of the oldest in England. Following King Alfred's foundation of an Abbey on its airy hilltop in AD 888 and the internment of Edward the Martyr's body there in AD 980, Shaftesbury became a place of pilgrimage and royal patronage for nearly seven centuries until the Abbey's dissolution by Henry VIII in 1539.
Set today in a quiet, secluded garden, the ruined foundations of the Abbey church lie alongside a modern shrine to St. Edward and the Abbey museum.
Nearby is Gold Hill, its steep, cobbled street and quaint thatched cottages which face the ancient Abbey Wall world famous as the epitome of a timeless rural England. From neighbouring Park Walk and Castle Hill, the Blackmore Vale can be admired in all its glory.