Day 1: Arrival in Dorchester.

You arrive in one of the smallest County towns in England, Dorchester (Hardy's Casterbridge) - packed with history and activities and plenty to explore. Dorchester, or Durnovaria as the Romans named it when they founded it in AD70, is closely associated with Thomas Hardy. His study is preserved in the Dorset County Museum. Judge Jeffreys lodged in what is now the Lodging Restaurant during the Bloody Assizes of 1685. Across the road is the old Shire Hall, where the trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs was held.

Day 2: Dorchester to Wareham, 23 miles (37 km).

You begin your cycling, which leads you to the Saxon walled town of Wareham - so popular it attracted regular Viking raids and Canute captured it in 1016. Along the way you can visit Hardy’s birthplace at Higher Bockhampton, on the edge of Puddletown Heath (the Egdon Heath in The Return of the Native). Clouds Hill was the home of Lawrence of Arabia at the time of his fatal accident. The Wareham Town Walls were originally built in Saxon times to defend the town against attacks from the Vikings. They surround the town on three sides (the fourth being defended by the River Frome) and date from the 9th century.

Day 3: Wareham to Swanage, 13 miles (21 km).

Today the cycling is not as long, giving ample time to visit Corfe Castle and Purbeck before stopping overnight in Swanage. Before leaving Wareham you may like to visit St Martin’s Church, which dates from 1030, to see the marble effigy of T.E. Lawrence lying in his desert robes. Corfe is a lovely village overlooked by the castle ruins. The castle was built by the Normans on the site of a Saxon hunting lodge and stands in the cleft in the Purbeck Hills. Edward the Martyr was murdered there in 978. Swanage itself is a former Anglo-Saxon port where King Alfred defeated the Danish fleet in 877.

Day 4: Swanage to Dorchester, 28 miles (45 km).

You make your way back to Dorchester via Lulworth Cove and Moreton, famous for its church's unique engraved glass windows by Laurence Whistler and the burial place of Lawrence of Arabia. To reduce the days mileage, it would be possible to take the steam train to Corfe Castle and reduce the cycling to 21 miles for the day.