The village itself

Abbotsbury burned in the 1700s, the worst fire in 1784, and what went up afterwards is the village you see: limestone cottages under thatch, built from the abbey's own stone, along Rodden Row, Market Street, Back Street and West Street. Nearly a hundred structures in the parish are listed, six of them Grade I. The medieval street plan is still almost complete, and the whole place is inside the Dorset National Landscape.

Walk it in an hour. Rodden Row is the way in from Weymouth: 17th century thatch, Victorian estate terraces, the Swan Inn, the fishing tackle shop and Dansel Gallery in a converted thatched stable. Market Street has the Ilchester Arms with the Strangways arms over the door, Strangways Hall in the old school, the war memorial in the Square, and two bakeries. Church Street runs down past the church to the barn and Abbey Farm, where four workshops hold painters, printmakers and a picture gallery and the flower farm is pick your own. West Street climbs out past the cricket pitch that Wisden called one of the most beautiful. Read the front doors as you go: by long custom blue is an estate cottage on a rental, white a house on a lease, and any other colour freehold.

Coffee and food: Cherries at Abbey Farm every day 10 to 5, the Old Schoolhouse Tea Rooms on Back Street from April to October, lunch in the garden at the Abbey House from mid-March to the end of October, Bellenie's from 7.30 in the morning, Oxford's Bakery at 4 Market Street, and the two pubs. The village shop and Post Office are on Chapel Lane. Public toilets are on Back Street. Park in the village car park off Rodden Row, DT3 4JL; the streets are narrow and the cottages sit on the kerb.

The X53 stops at the Swan and the Ilchester Arms, so you can come by bus, walk the village and up to the chapel, and go back the same way without touching the car.

Dorset Council, Abbotsbury Historic Towns Survey, The fires, and what was built after them, Blue doors, white doors