Staying Melbury Abbas nr Shaftestbury, Dorset - where to go and eat?

[Tensmumym]

We'll be staying for a week in Melbury Abbas near the end of August with 2 dds of 7 and 4. Recommendations of where to go and eat would be great. Thanks.

You absolutely must go to the compton abbas airfield down the road.

I've actually no idea about the food as we go for tea and cake or icecream. However its a flying school and the cafe has an outdoor seating area where you can watch all the planes taking off and landing. I'm not massively into planes but its still very fun. I think its busier at weekends.

Def worth popping in for an hour.

There are LOTS of nice pubs/restaurants in the area but not got recent knowledge...

There are some beautiful hikes in the area if you're into that kind of thing. Further up the road from compton abbas airfield you can park and there is a gorgeous walk around the dip/hills.

Blandford has the Signals museum which may be worth a visit if they are into that kind of thing. It's the Signals over the ages in the army (army base) and upstairs has some hands on code-breakery stuff. You do need to show drivers license/ID to go on base I think.

Have you been to Shaftesbury before? THere is the famous hovis hill which has a cafe at the top.

How far do you want to travel? Further south there is Corfe Castle, Brownsea Island. Go ape, moinkey world, Poole harbour boat rides, upton country park etc.

Thanks very much Rainbow. Just have to have fingers crossed that the weather will be better than the forecast.

I haven't been but Stour head is supposed to be lovely. Pop down to Dorchester. We are not short of eateries.