This is the county town of Dorset and is the main agriculture centre for the area.  Wednesday is market day, when you can see this town in full swing.  Orginally founded by the Romans in 70AD the towns origins are strongly evident as iron age and Roman hillforts scattered across surrounding countryside. Maiden Castle is the largest and finest of these hillforts and it also has traces of a Celtic temple.  Maumbury Rings is also worth a visit, in this amphitheatre the Romans held huge gladiatorial battles, and later on in the Middle Ages it was used for public hangings and traditional sports such as bear baiting. 

Today Dorchester is often connected with the author Thomas Hardy, who lived and wrote in this area, immortalising Dorchester as Casterbridge in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’. Nearby is Hardy's Cottage, where he wrote some of his first novels such as 'Under the Greenwood Tree' and 'Far from the Madding Crowd', and his last home Max Gate, where much of his poetry was written.