A lesser-known UK village is home to stunning rolling fields, ruins, and an unusual local landmark. Cerne Abbas is a village and civil parish in Dorset, some eight miles north of Dorchester, known for its quaint, peaceful charm and bucolic surroundings.
Charles Orlebar Estate agents, a property firm in Northamptonshire and North Bedfordshire, named the village among its list of the “best British villages you’ve never heard of”, praising it as a “Dorset treasure that’s certainly worth a visit”. Located in the Cerne valley, the village grew around a great Benedictine Abbey founded in AD 987 that fell victim to the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century and was destroyed, as per Visit Dorset.
However, the ruins of the holy site remain and are said to be worth a visit. The village is also still home to a number of medieval and post-medieval buildings, transporting visitors back to the settlement’s storied history.
It also boasts a number of historic pubs. These include The Royal Oak, a 16th-century thatched inn, and the New Inn, which dates all the way back to the 13th century.
But Cerne Abbas is perhaps best known for being the home of Britain’s largest chalk hill figure, the Cerne Giant.
The iconic 55-metre tall figure of a naked man is carved into the hillside, and shows him wielding a huge club in his right hand.
The figure has also been dubbed the “Rude Giant” due to it being depicted with an erect phallus. Little is known for sure about the giant’s meaning to this day.
National Trust archaeologists believe the mysterious figure was first etched into the landscape in the late Saxon period, some time between 700 and 1100AD.
National Trust senior archaeologist Martin Papworth said: “The deepest sample from his elbows and feet tells us he could not have been made before 700AD, ruling out theories that he is of prehistoric or Roman origin.
“This probable Saxon date places him in a dramatic part of Cerne’s history. Nearby Cerne Abbey was founded in 987AD and some sources think the abbey was set up to convert the locals from the worship of an early Anglo Saxon god known as ‘Heil’ or ‘Helith’.
“The early part of our date range does invite the question, was the giant originally a depiction of that god?”, he added.
