Dorset is a county in the south of England with the English Channel on its southern coast. Its county town is Dorchester although larger cities and towns include Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth and Ferndown. Dorset has various different types of landscape including clay valleys, limestone ridges and chalk downs. Bournemouth and Poole have their own unitary authorities.

More than 50% of the county is classed as being in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Its coastland in particular has been regarded as very interesting from a geographical/geological perspective, including the Isle of Portland, Durdle Door and Chesil Beach.

Sandbanks, a suburb of Poole, has achieved the heights of having the fourth highest land values in the whole world. Adjacent counties include Hampshire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon.

Bournemouth Airport offers scheduled flights to the European mainland and islands. There are no motorways in the county and the main trunk roads are the A303, A35 and A31. Poole offers ferries to France and the channel islands. Bournemouth has two universities, Bournemouth University and The Arts University Bournemouth.

Dorset has more than 30 general and specialist museums, including the Tank Museum at Bovington and the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester. Grade I listed buildings include Portland Castle, a coastal fort commissioned by Henry VIII, and Christchurch Priory, the longest church in England.

Thomas Hardy, the famous novelist, was born in Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester in 1840 - his fictional town 'Casterbridge' is based on Dorchester. Enid Blyton, the children's author, allegedly bought Purbeck Golf Club for £1, using it to go on holiday in Swanage: she apparently based many of her 'Famous Five' books around the Isle of Purbeck and Poole Harbour.

Finally, in the form of the Dorset Naga, the county has a claim on producing the hottest chilli in the world, with an average score of 923,000 Scoville Heat Units.