Palmers Brewery – and many of our pubs – are located in and around Bridport. It’s a Gateway Town for the Jurassic Coast, England’s first natural World Heritage site, which stretches for 95 miles and covers 185 million years of the earth’s geological history. Today, Bridport is well known for the quality and variety of its local food and drink, and has a growing reputation for cultural events. Together with neighbouring West Bay, it’s within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. From there, walkers can join the South West Coast Path to Seatown, from where it rises steeply to the famous landmark of Golden Cap, the highest point on the South coast. Beyond, you reach Stonebarrow Hill and Charmouth. Just four miles to the east of Bridport is the ancient village of Burton Bradstock, in the idyllic Bride Valley, sitting on the Dorset coast at the western end of the great Chesil Bank. Follow the coast down to the south east, to Abbotsbury and its world famous Swannery, and then on to Weymouth, centre for 2012 Olympic sailing.

The Dorset writer, Thomas Hardy, was born in Higher Bockhampton in 1840, where he wrote Far from the Madding Crowd. You’ll find Palmers pubs in the countryside around Dorchester and Beaminister and throughout Hardy Country. TE Lawrence or ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ rented Cloud’s Hill in 1923. It provided the solitude he needed to write The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. And you can’t miss the Cerne Abbas Giant, one of the largest hill figures in Britain. Carved in solid lines from the chalk bedrock, the giant measures 180 feet high. Visit historic Lyme Regis and its stone Cobb, setting for author John Fowles’ famous novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman. The town captivated Jane Austen in 1804 when she visited for a holiday, then brought it to life in Persuasion. Beyond Lyme, head into Devon to Torbay, and from there to the picturesque village of Salcombe. Up in Somerset, Glastonbury Tor has been recognised as a holy hill for millennia, with its striking location in the middle of the Summerland Meadows, part of the Somerset Levels. Today, the Glastonbury Festival is equally famous, bringing thousands to listen to the music each June.