Brownsea Island

Dorset

LoginSave

On this small, wooded island in the middle of Poole Harbour, trails weave through heath and woods, past peacocks, red squirrels, red deer and a wealth of bird life – the water-framed views on to the Isle of Purbeck are stunning. Free guided walks focus on the wartime island, bird life, smugglers and pirates. Boats, run by Brownsea Island Ferries, leave from Poole Quay (adult/child return £11.50/6.75) and Sandbanks (adult/child return £7/5) at least hourly.

Brownsea also played a key role in a global movement famous for three-fingered salutes, shorts and toggles – Lord Baden-Powell staged the first ever scout camp here in 1907.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • December 28, 2014: Interior of Salisbury Cathedral.

    Salisbury Cathedral

    26.66 MILES

    England is endowed with countless stunning churches, but few can hold a candle to the grandeur and sheer spectacle of 13th-century Salisbury Cathedral…

  • Corfe Castle

    Corfe Castle

    5.41 MILES

    The massive, shattered ruins of Corfe Castle loom so dramatically from the landscape it's like blundering into a film set. The defensive fragments tower…

  • Sunrise behind Durdle Door, on the Jurassic Coast.

    Durdle Door

    14.31 MILES

    Durdle Door is the poster child of Dorset's Jurassic Coast. This immense, sea-fringed, 150-million-year-old Portland stone arch was created by a…

  • Magna Carta in Salisbury Cathedral, England. It is a charter agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. It influenced the early American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies and the formation of the American Constitution in 1789, which became the supreme law of the land in the new republic of the United States.

    Magna Carta

    26.62 MILES

    Magna Carta on display in Salisbury Cathedral's Chapter House is one of only four surviving original copies. A historic agreement made in 1215 between…

  • KINGSTON LACY, UK - SEPTEMBER 29, 2012: A view toward the country house at Kingston Lacy with landscaped gardens in Summer; Shutterstock ID 1033498075; your: Bridget Brown; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI Image Update

    Kingston Lacy

    8.38 MILES

    Dorset's must-see stately home looks every inch the setting for a period drama. It overflows with rich decor, most famously in the Spanish Room, which is…

  • Wilton House

    Wilton House

    26.88 MILES

    Stately Wilton House provides an insight into the rarefied world of the British aristocracy. One of England's finest stately homes, it's been the house of…

  • Needles Old & New Battery

    Needles Old & New Battery

    17.26 MILES

    The Victorian fort complex at Wight's western tip is home to two gun emplacements where engrossing displays reveal how the site was established in 1862,…

  • Maiden Castle

    Maiden Castle

    21.87 MILES

    Occupying a massive slab of horizon on the southern fringes of Dorchester, Maiden Castle is the largest and most complex Iron Age hill fort in Britain…

View more attractions

Nearby Dorset attractions

2. Custom House

1.36 MILES

The impressive red-brick Custom House dates from 1813 – look out for the Union Jack and gilded coat of arms.

3. King Charles

1.36 MILES

One of Poole's oldest pubs, the building dates from around 1150.

4. Poole Museum

1.36 MILES

The building alone is worth seeing – a beautifully restored 15th-century warehouse. The star exhibit is a 2300-year-old Iron Age logboat dredged up from…

5. Sandbanks

1.67 MILES

A 2-mile, wafer-thin peninsula of land that curls around the expanse of Poole Harbour, Sandbanks is studded with some of the most expensive houses in the…

6. Alum Chine

3.56 MILES

Bournemouth's 1920s heyday is beautifully evoked at a subtropical enclave containing plants from the Canary Islands, New Zealand, Mexico and the Himalayas…

7. West Cliff Lift Railway

4.23 MILES

Built in 1908 to link Bournemouth's steep but relatively low cliffs to the beach, the West Cliff Lift Railway regularly trundles up and down a short…

8. Bournemouth Beach

4.53 MILES

Bournemouth's sandy shoreline regularly clocks up seaside awards. It stretches from Southbourne in the far east to Alum Chine in the west – an immense…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting: 
    {
  "url": "england/southwest-england/poole/attractions/brownsea-island/a/poi-sig/1051262/359017",
  "destination": "Dorset",
  "continent": "Europe",
  "country": "England",
  "region": "Dorset",
  "position": "superzone"
}