Welcome to the Dorset AONB
The Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is one of a family of protected landscapes in the UK, working to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of almost half of Dorset's countryside.
Rather than just one beautiful landscape to shout about, the Dorset AONB is a collection of beautiful landscapes - each with different histories, ways of working and stories to tell.
If you're looking for ideas to get out and about, new for April and May is a fantastic programme of exhibitions, walks, talks and events with our Drawing Inspiration project. Find out more.
Look at the landscape with fresh eyes, with the new Drawing Inspiration programme of exhibitions, walks and talks during April and May. 
Photographer Richard Jeffery has visited and re-photographed a selection of 100-year-old landscape photographs of Beaminster and surrounding villages from the Museum's archive collection. Comparison of the historic and contemporary images show the changes, if any, that have occurred over the 20th century.
The cafe features Interrogating Landscapes part 1, the first in a series of works exploring local landmark sites. Organised by Dorset Visual Arts, the skethcbook style exhibition explores artistic interpretations of local landmark sites.
Exhibition exploring how Purbeck’s landscape has inspired artists over the centuries and continues to do so today.
An exhibition of paintings and drawings which capture changes in West Bay over time.
The foyer exhibition is the result of a collaboration between photographer Richard Jeffery and students from Beaminster and Sir John Colfox schools and Bridport Museum. 
An exhibition based around the Dorset inspired engravings of Elizabeth Armsden and Rosina Bean, who lived and worked in Swanage and Studland.
A large and constantly growing collection of images and brief biographies of over 400 artists who have visited or lived in Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck and whose work has been inspired by the locality. Compiled by Robert Field.
Moule was a Dorset-born English watercolour artist, and friend of Thomas Hardy. The first curator of the Dorset County Museum, his lasting legacy is an astonishing collection of several thousand watercolours he painted of the Dorset countryside, a unique record providing a vivid insight into Victorian Dorset and strongly evoking the Wessex of Thomas Hardy’s books.