Hardy’s Cottage

Despite training as an architect, writing was Hardy’s first love, and it was from here that he wrote several of his early short stories, poetry and novels including ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ and ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’. The cottage is traditionally built from cob and the thatched roof is a wonderful backdrop to the roses, honeysuckle and japonica that climb the walls. Catch the cottage on a sunny Summers day and you won’t find a prettier place in Dorset to spend a couple of hours.

The cottage stands at the top of the hill off Cuckoo Lane in Higher Bockhampton and behind it stretches Egdon Heath, which Hardy wrote of in ‘The Return of the Native’. Take your walking shoes and enjoy a walk through the woods and beyond into Puddletown Forest.