Cedar Hollow Dorset
The local area
We sit on the corner where Dorset, Devon and Somerset meet, ten miles from the Jurassic coast. This is where we send guests, and where we go ourselves.
Almost everything here wants booking, especially at a weekend and especially in summer. Two miles for a pint, ten for the sea, and very little worth rushing.
Distances are driving distances from the car park unless we say otherwise. Opening hours change with the season — ring ahead rather than trust this page, and ring before you leave the woods, because the signal in the lanes is patchy.
Eating out
Nearest first. The Tytherleigh Arms is the one we send people to on the first night, because it is two miles away and you will not have to think about it.
The Tytherleigh Arms
Our local, and our favourite. Otter Ale on the pumps and a Sunday lunch that books out well ahead.
Tytherleigh Farm Shop
Takeaway breakfasts, homemade burgers, wraps and salads, with the farm shop attached.
Tue–Sat, 8am–4pm
Cotley Inn
West of Chard. Award-winning three-course menus alongside the pub standards done properly.
River Cottage Kitchen & Store
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s kitchen and store on the Axminster road.
Rockfish
Overlooking the Cobb. Locally landed fish and seafood, and the best view in Lyme to eat it from.
Swim
Contemporary café right on the beachfront. Burgers, fish and a very large breakfast.
Tierra Kitchen
Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free, and generous enough about it that committed carnivores leave happy.
The Ollerod
A thirteenth-century country house with a garden terrace and a kitchen built around local produce.
Brassica
Small, and the menu changes daily according to what came in that morning. Book.
The Bull Hotel
Boutique rooms downstairs from moules-frites, a good brunch and a courtyard worth the walk.
Dorshi
Down an alleyway. Asian dumplings, noodles and cocktails, and better than it has any need to be.
Sladers Yard Café
A maritime warehouse turned gallery, with an organic café and proper cream teas underneath the art.
The Anchor Inn
On the beach below Golden Cap. Full of coast-path walkers and cold-water swimmers, in roughly equal measure.
Hive Beach Café
Fish landed that morning, eaten on a terrace above the shingle. Entirely weather-dependent, gloriously so.
The Seaside Boarding House
Cliff-top, looking out over Lyme Bay. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, all worth the drive.
The Crooked Swan
Fresh, local and organic, in a town most people drive through without stopping.
Crab House Café
A long way, and worth it. Out-of-the-tank crustaceans served with hammers, buckets and bibs.
Buying food
There is no shop in the woods beyond the honesty cupboard, and the nearest provisions are two miles up the road. Stock up on the way in if you can.
Tytherleigh Farm Shop
Local produce, fresh vegetables and the makings of dinner. The closest useful shop to the woods.
Mon–Sat 8am–6pm, Sun 10am–4pm
Thorncombe Village Shop
Deli counter, local fruit, veg and meat, and a café attached.
Mon–Fri 8.30am–5.30pm, Sat 8.30am–1pm, Sun 9.30am–noon
Morrisons on the Go
Convenience store and post office. The one that is open when nothing else is.
Daily 7am–9pm
Millers Farm Shop
Home-grown vegetables, meat from local farms and fish when it comes in.
The woodland shop
Cider, fizz, frozen pizza dough, kindling and firelighters, on an honesty system. Pre-order up to the day before you arrive.
The coast
Ten miles to the sea in most directions, and the Jurassic Coast the whole way along. Low tide after a winter storm is the best fossil hunting of the year.
Lyme Regis
The Cobb, the galleries, the fossil shops and the harbour. Busy in August, lovely in February.
Eype Beach
Our favourite locals’ beach, off the beaten track, with no facilities and a long pebbled walk in either direction.
Seatown
A beach, a pub and a wood-fired sauna, directly below Golden Cap.
Burton Bradstock
Beach cafés under the cliffs, and the eastern end of Chesil Beach beyond.
Beer
A working fishing cove with boats pulled up the shingle, caves, galleries and boat hire.
Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre
Free advice on where and how to look for fossils, plus guided hunts along the shore.
Days out
Enough to fill a week, if you wanted to — though most guests manage one outing and then decide the deck was better.
Forde Abbey
A medieval monastery on our boundary, with thirty acres of garden, a nursery and a tea room. You can walk there from the top gate.
Pilsdon Pen
The second-highest point in Dorset. A short, steep climb for a view across Marshwood Vale to Golden Cap.
Black Cow Vodka
Vodka distilled from milk, which sounds like a joke until you try it. Distillery visits, cocktails and lunch.
River Cottage HQ
Day courses in bread ovens, butchery, foraging, beekeeping and cookery.
Harry May Boat Trips
Mackerel and deep-sea fishing out of the harbour, seasonally.
Furleigh Estate
Award-winning English still and sparkling wine. Shop 11am–5pm Mon–Sat; tours and tastings Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Palmers Brewery
Thatched brewery on the river. Two-hour tours at 11am, Easter to October.
Bridport Markets
Street market Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8am–4pm. Vintage market on the last Sunday of the month, Easter to October.
Lyme Bay RIB Charter
Jurassic Coast rib trips, longer cruises, a water taxi and wakeboarding.
Hyde Real Tennis Court
One of very few real tennis courts in the country, and open to visitors.
Seaside Sauna
A wood-fired sauna on the beach, with a sea plunge and a pub thirty seconds away.
Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
Twenty acres of rare and exotic planting, with the Swannery next door in the warmer months.
Makers and galleries
This corner of the county has an unusual density of people who make things properly by hand — a legacy, in part, of the woodland workshop that started all this.
Boo Mallinson
Contemporary landscape painter. Studio visits by arrangement.
Itre Furniture
Petter Southall’s steam-bent commission furniture, made in the Bridport area.
David Saltmarsh
Chairmaker, and one of the makers featured in the BBC’s Mastercrafts.
Adam Hawker
Internationally known spoon carver, running courses through the year.
Dorset Art Weeks
A directory of more than six hundred Dorset artists, makers and galleries, and an open-studios fortnight every other spring.
Or simply stay put
Thirteen acres, a hot tub, a pizza oven and nowhere you have to be.