Fordscroft

Fordscroft's appeal for a hotel stay lies in its position rather than its own facilities: this is quiet farmland close to the market town of Crewkerne, within easy striking distance of some of the best scenery in the South West. Rather than looking for a hotel in Fordscroft itself, most visitors base themselves in Crewkerne, where a small number of pubs with rooms and guesthouses serve the town, or head slightly further afield to Yeovil for a wider choice of chain and independent hotels. For a coastal stay, Lyme Regis and Bridport, both around 25 minutes away, offer a good range of seafront and town-centre hotels along with plenty of restaurants and shops.

Wherever you choose to stay, the appeal of this part of Somerset is the same: rolling farmland, ancient footpaths, and quick access to Ham Hill Country Park, the fossil beaches of the Jurassic Coast, and historic houses such as Forde Abbey. A hotel in or around Crewkerne puts you within a 20 to 30 minute drive of all of these, while still giving you the comfort of a proper bed, breakfast and somewhere to dry out after a day on the coast. Booking ahead is sensible in summer, when the Jurassic Coast towns in particular fill up with holidaymakers drawn by the beaches and fossil hunting, and rooms in Crewkerne and Yeovil can also get booked up around the Crewkerne and District Agricultural Show each September.

Fordscroft is best used as a rural base for exploring south Somerset and the neighbouring Dorset and Devon coast. Within a short drive you will find:

• Ham Hill Country Park — an Iron Age hillfort and nature reserve with some of the best panoramic views in Somerset, plus a war memorial and stone circle, roughly 20 minutes from Crewkerne.
• Crewkerne Museum and Heritage Centre — a small local museum telling the story of the town's Saxon origins and its centuries as a centre of sailcloth and flax production.
• Lyme Regis and the Jurassic Coast — a UNESCO World Heritage coastline around 25 minutes away by car, famous for fossil hunting on the beaches at Lyme Regis and Charmouth.
• Forde Abbey and Gardens — a Grade I listed former Cistercian monastery with parts dating to the 1100s, set in extensive gardens, a short drive south of Crewkerne.
• St Bartholomew's Church, Crewkerne — a fine 15th-century parish church at the heart of the town's Georgian conservation area.
• Dinosaurland Fossil Museum, Lyme Regis — a family-friendly museum of local fossils, a good rainy-day stop when combined with a coastal visit.

Crewkerne's town centre has independent cafés, bakeries and a handful of traditional pubs serving classic British food, along with a Waitrose for supermarket shopping. For a special occasion, Forde Abbey's tea room makes a pleasant stop after touring the gardens, and the seafood restaurants of Lyme Regis are well worth the short drive for anyone staying a few days in the area.

England has no general right to wild camp, and the fields and farmland around Fordscroft are all in private hands, so pitching a tent here without the landowner's permission is not allowed. The good news is that this part of south Somerset has a healthy scattering of proper campsites and caravan parks on working farms, several within a few miles of Crewkerne, offering everything from simple grass pitches to fully serviced hook-ups, so there is no need to camp wild to enjoy the countryside.

The terrain here is gentle rather than dramatic: rolling arable fields, orchards and wooded valleys rather than open moor, which makes for easy, pleasant walking and cycling rather than serious hillwalking. The one exception is Ham Hill nearby, whose Iron Age hillfort ramparts give a proper climb and some of the best views in the county for the effort. Underfoot conditions are at their driest and firmest from late spring through to early autumn; Somerset's clay-heavy soils can turn heavy going after prolonged winter rain, so those months suit campers happier with mud and shorter days.

May to September is the sweet spot for a camping trip based near Fordscroft, combining warm evenings for sitting out with reliable access to the Jurassic Coast beaches at Lyme Regis and Charmouth, both under half an hour away. School holiday weeks bring the coast to its busiest, so early or late summer weekdays are worth targeting if you prefer a quieter pitch. Firepits and barbecues are usually only permitted where a site specifically allows them and provides raised stands, so check site rules before lighting anything, and always take dry, ready-cut firewood rather than gathering it from hedgerows or woodland.

For anyone who would rather skip the tent-pitching altogether, glamping has taken hold across this part of Somerset in the form of shepherd's huts, safari tents and converted farm buildings, many with wood-burners and their own hot tubs. It is a comfortable way to enjoy the same rural setting, the same views towards Ham Hill, and the same easy access to the coast, without needing to bring your own kit or worry about the weather turning.