The Chained Library, in Wimborne Minster, was established in 1686 and is stacked with some of the country's oldest medieval books, 12th-century lambskin manuscripts and ancient recipes, including ones for making ink out of oak apples.
Chained Library
Dorset
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
20.19 MILES
England is endowed with countless stunning churches, but few can hold a candle to the grandeur and sheer spectacle of 13th-century Salisbury Cathedral…
11.47 MILES
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17.65 MILES
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20.16 MILES
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27.19 MILES
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2.09 MILES
Dorset's must-see stately home looks every inch the setting for a period drama. It overflows with rich decor, most famously in the Spanish Room, which is…
20.09 MILES
Stately Wilton House provides an insight into the rarefied world of the British aristocracy. One of England's finest stately homes, it's been the house of…
25.59 MILES
Overflowing with vistas, temples and follies, Stourhead is landscape gardening at its finest. The Palladian house has some fine Chippendale furniture and…
Nearby Dorset attractions
0.01 MILES
A monastery was first founded in Wimborne, 10 miles north of Bournemouth, in around AD 705 by St Cuthburga. Most of the present-day Wimborne Minster was…
2.09 MILES
Dorset's must-see stately home looks every inch the setting for a period drama. It overflows with rich decor, most famously in the Spanish Room, which is…
5.97 MILES
The building alone is worth seeing – a beautifully restored 15th-century warehouse. The star exhibit is a 2300-year-old Iron Age logboat dredged up from…
5.99 MILES
The impressive red-brick Custom House dates from 1813 – look out for the Union Jack and gilded coat of arms.
7.17 MILES
On this small, wooded island in the middle of Poole Harbour, trails weave through heath and woods, past peacocks, red squirrels, red deer and a wealth of…
7.28 MILES
Bournemouth's 1920s heyday is beautifully evoked at a subtropical enclave containing plants from the Canary Islands, New Zealand, Mexico and the Himalayas…