Sherborne is one of Dorset's handsomest inland towns, built from warm ochre hamstone on the edge of the Blackmore Vale. It has the scale of a small market town, but the architectural weight of somewhere that mattered for a long time.
The centre is anchored by Sherborne Abbey, whose fan vaulting would be enough reason to stop. A little east, the ruins of Sherborne Old Castle and the later Sherborne Castle tell a compact story of bishops, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Civil War.
Sherborne is not loud or fashionable. Its pleasure is in a slow day: abbey, almshouse, old streets, castle gardens, and a decent train connection that makes it easy to reach from Salisbury, Yeovil, or Exeter.