Dorset is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. Dorset covers an area of 2,653 square kilometres (1,024 sq mi); it borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. Around half of Dorset's population lives in the South East Dorset conurbation. The rest of the county is largely rural with a low population density.

Initially agricultural, tourism is now the primary industry, with the county receiving 18 million visitors a year. Over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Dorset is famous for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, which features landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door, as well as the holiday resorts of Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth, Swanage, and Lyme Regis. Dorset's three large ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and its international airport at Hurn, play an important part in the local economy, generating a substantial amount of international trade and tourism. Dorset is the birthplace and principal setting of the novels of Thomas Hardy, who was born in the county, and William Barnes, whose poetry celebrates and preserves the ancient Dorset dialect. (Wikipedia)

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