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Studland Beach is four National Trust beaches, parking from £4 for two hours. Which beach is which, where the naturist area is, dog rules and the ferry closure.
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Portland
Easton Methodist Quiz Night: £5 a Head, Sat 31 October
Easton Methodist Church holds a quiz at 6.30pm on Saturday 31 October, £5 a head in teams of four, then Portland carols at 3pm on 3 December, for the appeal.
What's On
Corfe Castle: £15 Entry This Winter, Parking and the Train
Corfe Castle is £15 an adult and £37.50 a family off-peak, open daily 10am to 3.30pm from 2 November. Parking, the Norden park and ride, buses and dogs.
Christmas
Dorset Christmas swims 2026: Swanage Boxing Day dip at 11am
Swanage's free Boxing Day swim is Saturday 26 December at 11am, the Ice Water Swim Festival is 29 December, and Weymouth's harbour swim is still to confirm.
Gillingham
Gillingham's Madjeston Way Opens After Three Years Closed
The 1.3km road linking New Road and Shaftesbury Road across south Gillingham is now open, three years after it was finished. Here is how it works.
What's On
Man O'War Beach: Steps, Swimming and Dogs by Durdle Door
Man O'War beach is the sand and shingle cove east of Durdle Door: same £15 car park, steep steps, Excellent bathing water, dogs all year. Checked 15 October.
Poole
Poole Rower Lexi Gill, 17, Picked for the Youth Olympics
Poole rower Lexi Gill, 17, races beach sprints for Great Britain at the Dakar Youth Olympics from 31 October, helped by a £1,000 community foundation grant.
Poole
Poole to Cherbourg Ferry Ends: MP Asks PM to Keep Door Open
The Barfleur's last Poole to Cherbourg sailing ends a 34-year link. Vikki Slade MP raised it with the PM, who offered a meeting with the Europe minister.
What's On
Lulworth Cove: Parking £9 for 3 Hours, Stair Hole, Dogs
Lulworth Cove parking is £9 for three hours or £25 for nine, every day. Stair Hole, rock pools, dogs, the walk to Durdle Door and buses, checked 14 October.
Dorchester
Dorset Autumn Afternoon: £25 Folk and Ploughman's, 15 Nov
Folk musicians Alastair Braidwood and Tim Laycock play Dorchester Corn Exchange at 1pm on Sunday 15 November; £25 buys a ploughman's lunch and a drink.
Dorchester
Shire Hall Museum Dorchester Closes After 3 Years of Losses
The courtroom where the Tolpuddle Martyrs were tried shut to visitors at 1pm on 8 October. Its accounts show three years of spending over income.
What's On
Durdle Door: Parking £15 to £35, the Walk Down, Dogs
Durdle Door is free; parking above it is £15 for six hours or £25 for nine, every day. The 15-minute walk down, dogs, buses and swimming, checked 13 October.
Weymouth
Weymouth Medieval Dig Finds on Show Free at County Hall
Finds from two Weymouth digs are on show free at County Hall, Dorchester, to 23 October. The artefacts are out only on 14 and 21 October, 11am to 2pm.
Dorset Council covers everything the Bournemouth conurbation does not, which is a very large and very rural authority with no single town at the middle of it. Dorchester is the county town and where the council is based. Weymouth is the largest place. Sherborne, Shaftesbury, Gillingham and Sturminster Newton are up in the north around the Blackmore Vale, Bridport and Lyme Regis are out west, Blandford Forum sits in the middle, and Wimborne, Ferndown, Verwood and Swanage are east and south.
The Dorset Post reports what the record shows across all of it. One council makes the decisions on planning, bins, parking and council tax for the lot, and publishes the evidence where hardly anybody reads it. We read it and write down what it says, with a link to the document on every fact.
Every fact is linked to the document it came from.