Explore the real-world places that appear in Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Eggardon Hill, The Harding Farm (Marshwood Vale equivalent), Gabriel Wolfe's Return: The Village Lane, Cerne Abbas Giant, Shire Hall, Dorchester and 5 more.
Near Askerswell, West Dorset — Stand-in for the sheep pastures where the dog is shot
The novel is set in a fictional Dorset village, and open hill pasture like this stands in for the fields where Beth's brother-in-law shoots a dog worrying the Hardings' sheep. That one gunshot sets the plot in motion, because the dog belongs to Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager. The sheep, the hillside and the neighbours' suspicion of outsiders set the tone for the rural tensions that follow.
Eggardon Hill is a large Iron Age hillfort rising to about 250 metres above the Dorset countryside. Its ramparts date from roughly the 4th century BC, and the hill has long been grazed by sheep.
The hill is open access land managed by the National Trust, with sweeping views toward the coast. Walkers use it year-round, and livestock still graze nearby, so dogs must be kept on leads.
Visit: Eggardon Hill (park)
Marshwood Vale near Powerstock — Beth and Frank's rural home
Beth and Frank live in a quiet farming community where their marriage rests on the past staying buried. Frank is gentle and kind, and Beth keeps the memory of her dead son and her youthful love for Gabriel carefully hidden. Gabriel's return to the village threatens the fragile peace of their home.
The Powerstock and Marshwood Vale area of West Dorset has been sheep and dairy country for centuries, dotted with small farms and stone-built hamlets. Many holdings were small family operations through the mid-20th century.
The area remains working farmland with scattered villages, footpaths and country pubs. Individual farms are private, so the landscape is best seen from public rights of way.
Cerne Abbas — Stand-in for the village to which Gabriel and his son Leo return
Gabriel Wolfe comes back to the village with his young son Leo, and his arrival stirs old gossip and jealousies. Beth is drawn back to him despite the life she has built with Frank, and Leo's resemblance to her own lost boy deepens her pull toward them. A village where everyone knows everyone's business makes every encounter a risk.
Cerne Abbas grew around a Benedictine abbey founded in 987 and is known for its medieval street layout. It has long been a quiet rural Dorset village of timber-framed and stone houses.
The village is a popular visitor stop with pubs, a village church and the nearby abbey remains. It keeps the look of an old English village and fits the novel's setting.
Visit: Cerne Abbas Village and Abbey Remains (landmark)
Giant Hill above Cerne Abbas — A chalk landmark of the Dorset countryside
The chalk hillsides of this part of Dorset are the backdrop to the novel's rural world, a landscape of ancient earthworks and old stories. They echo the book's themes of the past that refuses to stay buried. Hill scenes like these frame the secret meetings and rural tension among the villagers.
The Cerne Abbas Giant is a 55-metre chalk figure cut into the hillside, of uncertain date. Recent research suggests it was made in the late Saxon period, around the 10th century.
The figure is owned by the National Trust, and a viewing area lies just off the A352. Visitors cannot walk on the figure itself, but can view it from the lay-by and a nearby footpath.
Visit: Cerne Abbas Giant (National Trust) (landmark)
High West Street, Dorchester — Where the county's reckoning over a death plays out
The novel begins with a death: the farmer is dead, and everyone wants to know who killed him. Shire Hall, Dorchester's historic courthouse, is the natural real-world setting for the questions of guilt that follow. Beth must choose between the woman she once was and the woman she has become as the truth comes closer.
Shire Hall was built in 1797 and is the courtroom where the Tolpuddle Martyrs were tried in 1834. It served as a working court until 1955.
The building is now the Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum. Visitors can sit in the original Crown Court and see the cells.
Visit: Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum (museum)
High East Street — The market town the villagers visit
Dorchester is the nearest market town to the novel's rural Dorset setting, where villagers go for supplies, news and official business. Trips to town take Beth away from the village's watching eyes and pull the story toward its legal and emotional climax. It is a place where private feelings meet public consequences.
Dorchester was the Roman town of Durnovaria and later the county town of Dorset. Thomas Hardy based Casterbridge in his novels on it.
The town centre has independent shops, cafes, pubs and the Dorset Museum. It remains a busy market town on the edge of the Dorset countryside.
Visit: Dorset Museum (museum)
Higher Bockhampton — Rural Dorset heritage near the village's world
The thatched cottage evokes the old Dorset of secrets, rural hardship and tragic love that Hall's novel inherits from Thomas Hardy. Beth's story of a love she cannot escape and a community that judges her echoes that tradition. It stands as a touchstone for the book's countryside.
Thomas Hardy was born here in 1840 in a cottage built by his great-grandfather. He wrote Under the Greenwood Tree and Far from the Madding Crowd nearby.
The cottage is run by the National Trust and is open seasonally. It sits at the edge of Thorncombe Wood, with a cottage garden and woodland walks.
Visit: Hardy's Cottage (National Trust) (historic site)
South of Dorchester — Windswept hillfort of the old country
The ancient ramparts reflect the layers of buried history in the novel's Dorset setting. Characters who try to leave the past behind find that it surfaces, like the old earthworks beneath the grass. The windswept hill suits the book's hushed, uneasy walks and confrontations.
Maiden Castle is one of the largest Iron Age hillforts in Europe, with multiple ramparts enclosing about 19 hectares. It was occupied from around 600 BC and fell to the Romans in the 1st century AD.
The site is managed by English Heritage and is free to visit. Visitors walk the grassy ramparts and enjoy wide views over Dorchester.
Visit: Maiden Castle (English Heritage) (historic site)
West Bay, Bridport — The shoreline of grief and memory
The Dorset coast is a natural setting for the grief at the novel's core, since Beth carries the loss of her son in an accident. The sea and cliffs frame moments when she thinks about the life she lost and the one she might have had with Gabriel and Leo. The wide shore offers a rare place away from village eyes.
West Bay was developed as the harbour for Bridport in the 1740s. The nearby cliffs are part of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
West Bay is a seaside resort with a harbour, cafes and golden sandstone cliffs. Visitors can walk the shingle and the South West Coast Path.
Visit: West Bay Harbour and East Beach (park)
Lyme Regis — A coastal escape on the edge of Dorset
The seaside harbour stands in for the kind of coastal outing that offers Beth and Gabriel's circle a brief respite from the village's gossip. Time spent with Leo by the water reminds Beth of her own lost child and the family she once had. Such moments sharpen the choice she must finally make.
The Cobb is a curved stone harbour wall first mentioned in the 13th century and rebuilt after storms. It featured in Jane Austen's Persuasion and in John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman.
The Cobb shelters a working harbour with fishing boats, a small beach and seafood stalls. It is one of Dorset's best-known landmarks.
Visit: The Cobb Harbour (landmark)
More by Clare Leslie Hall: All Clare Leslie Hall books
Other nearby maps: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy locations map · Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy locations map · The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy locations map · The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett locations map