ATategallery

The A Tate Gallery sits just outside Dorchester, a proper little contemporary art space that punches above its weight for a market town setting. You're looking at rotating exhibitions of modern and contemporary work - paintings, installations, sculpture - displayed across intimate galleries that don't feel like a slog. It's the sort of place where you can spend an hour getting genuinely absorbed or whip through in forty minutes if you're pressed. The building itself has character without being trying-too-hard about it.

This one's brilliant if you're staying at Green Valley Yurts and Cabin or one of the nearby parks and fancy breaking up a holiday with something beyond the beach. Families with teenagers who can appreciate art will get more out of it than younger kids, though it depends entirely on what's on. Worth checking their website first to see if a particular exhibition speaks to you.

Admission details aren't entirely clear from here, so ring ahead or check online before you go - that's just sensible. Dorchester itself has plenty else going on: the Roman history, decent high street, and the surrounding countryside is cracking for walks. If you're based near Warmwell or Weymouth Bay, it's close enough for an afternoon visit without derailing your plans. Don't expect a major cultural institution, but that's rather the point. Sometimes the best galleries are the ones that feel genuinely local.