85 Best Sights in The South, England

This colossal and unblushingly priapic figure, 180 feet long, dominates a hillside overlooking the village of Cerne Abbas. The giant carries a huge club and may have originated as a pre-Roman tribal fertility symbol. Alternatively, historians have tended to believe he is a representation of Hercules dating back to the 2nd century AD. Recent research suggests he may be a 17th-century gibe at Oliver Cromwell as there is nothing in the historical record before 1694 that mentions the figure, but other recent studies suggest the giant was first made by the Saxons between AD 700 and 1100.

The figure's outlines are formed by 1-foot-wide trenches cut into the ground to reveal the chalk beneath. The best place to view the figure is from the A352 itself, where you can park in one of the numerous nearby turnouts.

Little remains of this 10th-century Benedictine abbey. However, the grounds of the South Gate House (a private residence constructed in the 16th and 18th centuries using materials from the abbey, including its original Saxon doorway) has some later remnants. The Abbot's Porch, built in 1509, was once the entrance to the abbot's quarters and is notable for its double oriel window with carvings of small animals; the 15th-century guesthouse is one of the few surviving monastic hospices in the United Kingdom. At the other end of the village is the monastery's original Tithe Barn. You are welcome to look around the grounds at the owner's discretion for a small donation. There is also a cottage available for short-term vacation rentals on the grounds.

Four miles west of Avebury, Cherhill Down is a prominent hill carved with a vivid white horse and topped with a towering obelisk. The horse, the second oldest chalk "white horse" in Wiltshire, is one of a number of hillside etchings in the county, all but two of which date back no further than the late 18th century. This one was put there in 1780 to indicate the highest point of the downs between London and Bath. The views from the top are well worth the half-hour climb. The best view of the horse is from A4, on the approach from Calne.

Set over the River Itchen at the east end of the High Street, this rare surviving example of an 18th-century urban water mill, complete with small island garden, is probably the oldest working water mill in Britain, with timbers dating back to the 11th century. The medieval corn mill on the site was rebuilt in 1744 and remained in use until the early 20th century. Restored by the National Trust in 2004, it still operates as a working mill on weekends, and you can purchase stone-ground flour produced here in the gift shop.

This museum reflects Winchester's history, from the Iron Age to the present. One gallery covers the 1,000 years of the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval eras, which includes displays of potters and jewelry as well as coins from the former period and agricultural tools from the latter (45-minute guided tours of the gallery are offered at 10:30 am, noon, 1:45 pm, and 3:15 pm daily). Other collections feature two of Jane Austen's purses and a detailed scale model of the city in Victorian times. It's an imaginative, well-presented collection that appeals to children and adults alike. The hands-on activities include a history detective quiz and costumes for kids of every time period starting with the Romans. On the top floor are some well-restored Roman mosaics. Pick up an audio guide at the entrance (£2) to get the most out of the museum.

This brick-and-tile cottage served as the retreat of T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, before he was killed in a motorcycle accident on the road from Bovington in 1935. The house remains very much as he left it, with photos and memorabilia from his time in the Middle East. It's particularly atmospheric on a gloomy day, as there's no electric light. Clouds Hill is 8 miles northwest of Corfe. Admission is by pre-booked guided tour only.

One of the most dramatic ruins in Britain, Corfe Castle overlooks the picturesque gray limestone village of the same name. The present ruins are what's left of a castle begun by Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, who erected the great central keep in the early 12th century to guard the principal route through the surrounding Purbeck Hills. The outer walls and towers were added in the 1270s. Cromwell's Parliament ordered the castle to be blown up in 1646 during the Civil War, after a long siege during which its Royalist chatelaine, Lady Bankes, led its defense.

This was the home of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79), the eminent Victorian portrait photographer and friend of Lord Tennyson. A gallery includes more than 60 examples of her work, including striking images of Carlyle, Tennyson, and Browning. In addition, there's much here that will appeal to fans of decorative textiles and wall coverings. There's also a room devoted to the various Isle of Wight rock festivals, most famously the five-day event in 1970 that featured the Who, the Doors, Joni Mitchell, and Jimi Hendrix. On the ground floor is a shop and a good Alice in Wonderland–themed tearoom for snacks, hot lunches, and a traditional cream tea.

Located in a former church, this compact private museum run by a paleontologist has an excellent collection of local fossils with more than 16,000 specimens dating back 200 million years. It also provides information on regional geology, how fossils develop, and guided fossil-hunting walks. There are more fossils for sale in the shop on the ground floor along with minerals.

This labyrinthine museum contains eclectic collections devoted to nearby Roman and Celtic archaeological finds, Jurassic Coast geology, social history (especially rural crafts and agriculture), decorative arts, regional costumes, and local literary luminaries, primarily Hardy but also T.E. Lawrence and others.

This museum located in a Georgian building used by the Royal Navy to store weapons and ammunition since 1771 explores the history of warfare at sea with interactive touch-screen exhibits on naval armaments, from cannonballs to mines, missiles, torpedoes, and even a decommissioned nuclear bomb. Reached by water bus from the Historic Dockyard, the museum also tells the story of the local people who manufactured the weapons.

This late 13th-century gatehouse, expanded in the early 14th century at the start of the 100 Years' War to incorporate a two-story gallery and three-story tower, forms the southeast corner of the town's medieval wall. It subsequently became a gunpowder factory, the town jail, and then an archeology museum. After extensive restoration, the gallery space is now used for a changing roster of art installations. Don't miss the far-reaching views over the city from the roof.

This unique museum tells the story of the British Army's Gurkha brigade, whose Nepalese soldiers have fought alongside the British since the early 19th century in virtually every deployment, through tableaux, dioramas, uniforms, weapons, artifacts, and interactive touch-screen displays. A program of lectures includes a Nepalese curry lunch (£35) on the last Friday of the month.

The prestige and popularity of English sparkling wines produced in the chalky soil near the country's south coast has been growing by leaps and bounds over recent years, to the point where they're taking on the better-known variety across the English Channel. Some of the most highly regarded come from this spot, the oldest commercial vineyard in the United Kingston, located 14 miles from Winchester. Informative tours and tastings from the selection of sparkling and still wines are offered from June to September, along with lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner in the pop-up restaurant on-site.

On the hills above Abbotsbury stands this 72-foot tall stone monument dedicated to Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy (not the famous writer), Nelson's right-hand man at the battle of Trafalgar to whom his dying words "Kiss me, Hardy" were addressed. The monument, designed to look like a spyglass, lacks charm, but in clear weather, you can scan the whole coastline between the Isle of Wight and Start Point in Devon, 56 miles away (the Hardy family wanted a monument that could be used as a landmark for shipping.) On open days in May and October, you can climb the 120 steps inside to a viewing platform.

Thomas Hardy's grandfather built this small thatch-and-cob cottage, where the writer was born in 1840, and little has changed since the family left. Here Hardy grew up and wrote many of his early works, including Far from the Madding Crowd, at a desk you can still see. Access is by foot only, via a walk through ancient woodland or down a country lane from the parking lot, where there's a visitor center with information about the surrounding landscape and trails that let you follow in Hardy's footsteps. Admission is by pre-booked guided tour only.

One of four castellated gateways originally built between 1327 and 1342 using stones taken from the original settlement at Old Sarum, this is the north passage through the wall that surrounds the Cathedral Close. The mullioned windows over the archway mark the site of a small lock-up jail to which anyone who committed offences within the Close was taken.

One of two surviving gateways in the city's original ancient walls, this structure to the south of the Close is thought to have been built in the 12th century as a remodeling of a Roman gate on the site. The tiny 13th-century church of St. Swithun-upon-Kingsgate, a rare surviving example of a "gateway church" (built into the walls of medieval cities), is on the upper floor. Nearby, 8 College Street is the house where Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, three days after writing a comic poem about the legend of St. Swithun's Day (copies are usually available in the cathedral).

Originally built in the 17th century by the Royalist family that fled from Corfe Castle, this grand country house was remodeled in the 19th century by Sir Charles Barry, co-architect of the Houses of Parliament in London, in the style of a lavish 18th-century Venetian palazzo. It contains notable paintings by Titian, Rubens, van Dyck, Tintoretto, and Velásquez as well as a dazzling Spanish Room lined in gilded leather and topped by an ornate gilded ceiling from an early 17th-century Venetian palace. The library has some 1,450 volumes dating from before 1801. There's also a fine collection of Egyptian artifacts, the largest private collection in the country, many placed in the landscaped gardens originally laid out in the 18th century (there's also a Japanese garden with a teahouse) and extensive parklands with walking paths. Admission is by timed guided tour ticket only.

For a classic view of Salisbury, head to Long Bridge and Town Path. From the main street, walk west to Mill Road, which leads you across the Queen Elizabeth Gardens. Cross the bridge and continue on Town Path through the water meadows, from which you can see the vista that inspired John Constable's 1831 Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, one of Britain's most iconic paintings, now on view in London's Tate Britain.

This small but child-friendly aquarium has the usual up-close look at maritime creatures, from spider crabs to fish found in nearby Lyme Bay. Children love hand-feeding the gray mullets and getting up-close to starfish, lobsters, and crabs.

A gabled and turreted Edwardian building on the site of fossilist Mary Anning's former home, this lively museum is devoted to the town's maritime and domestic history, geology, local artists, writers (John Fowles was an honorary curator for a decade), and, of course, Anning herself and her fossils. The museum also leads fossil-hunting and local history walks throughout the year. Anning was immortalized in the 2020 film Ammonite, shot largely in the town.

Although called a castle, this is actually one of the most important pre-Roman archaeological sites in England and the largest, most complex Iron Age hill fort in Europe, made of stone and earth with ramparts that enclose about 45 acres. England's Neolithic inhabitants built the fort some 4,000 years ago, with its ramparts being constructed in the 1st century BC, when it was a Celtic stronghold housing hundreds of residents. It was still occupied when it was stormed in AD 43 by the invading Romans. Within a few decades, the fort was abandoned in favor of the new Roman city that later became Dorchester, but in the 4th century AD, a Roman-British temple complex was constructed here. Finds from the site are on display in the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester. To experience an uncanny silence and sense of mystery, climb Maiden Castle early in the day. Leave your car in the lot at the end of Maiden Castle Way, a 1½-mile lane.

The Charter Market, one of southern England's most popular markets, fills this square on Tuesday and Saturday. Permission to hold an annual fair here was granted in 1221, and that right is still exercised for three days every October, when the Charter Fair takes place. A narrow side street links Poultry Cross to Market Place.

This large Neolithic henge, 278 feet in diameter, is the oldest monument in Dorchester and has survived by adapting. In the 1st century AD, some 2,500 years after its construction, it became one of the largest Roman amphitheaters in Britain, used for gladiatorial contests and executions. In the Middle Ages, it was used for jousting tournaments, while during the English Civil War it was converted into an artillery fort. After the Restoration, it once again became a place of public execution; 80 rebels condemned by the infamous Judge Jeffreys met their fate here. Vividly evoked in Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge, it's now used for public events such as the Dorset Arts Festival.

Thomas Hardy lived in Max Gate from 1885 until his death in 1928. An architect by profession, Hardy designed the handsome Victorian house himself, and visitors can now see the study where he wrote Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure. The dining room, the drawing room, and the garden (complete with a small cemetery for the family pets, some with headstones carved by Hardy himself) are open to the public. Admission is by pre-booked guided tour only.

This memorial was built to commemorate the departure of the 102 passengers who, on August 15, 1620, left for North America on the Mayflower from the city. A plaque also honors the 2 million U.S. troops who embarked from Southampton for occupied Europe during World War II.

Starting at the Spur Redoubt (supposedly the point from which Nelson set sail for Trafalgar) near Clarence Pier in Southsea, the Millennium Promenade follows the waterfront through Old Portsmouth and Gunwharf Quays, ending up at the Hard near the Historic Dockyard. The 4-mile self-guided walk, marked by a rope pattern on the sidewalk, passes a variety of fortifications built in the 13th century, the early 20th century, and everything in between.

A perfect example of Queen Anne architecture, this family home, built in 1701, sits on the north side of Cathedral Close. It's notable for magnificent plasterwork, an exceptionally carved oak staircase, fine period furniture, and a superb collection of 18th-century drinking glasses. Tea and refreshments are served in a walled garden. Admission is by pre-booked tour only.

This visitor complex with a gallery, museum, and reference library devoted to the New Forest contains displays and activities related to the area's geology, history, wildlife, and culture. The museum is packed with quizzes and other interactive elements that keep children engaged. There's also a café.