The Square And Compass, Worth Matravers, Swanage

This pub was recommended on The Guardian website and whilst in that area thought we’d check it out and I’m so glad we did! It’s an absolutely lovely little place, go into the pub and there is a little hatch for the bar area where they serve proper ales and ciders as well as pies and hearty snacks. The best bit of this place is not only the atmosphere but the outside area of this little gem. The sloping grass in front of the pub has stone tables and chairs and places to perch and chill out in the sunshine with a beer and a packet of crisps. Looking out over the fields is a really relaxing and welcoming place. Parking up the road (you have to pay) or if you can squeeze in there is parking on the lanes, head for a stroll over the fields after your pint to see the sea. Gorgeous.

I have been going to this pub since i was about 5, everyone who has ever been there loves it because of its great atmostphere, classic pub feeling and the of course the food and drink. I came to love pasties because of this pub! It is also a definete animal friendly pub, seeing as the owners own about 10 pets thast wonder aimlessly around the pub. During winter there is a roaring fire in both of the rooms, and regular local music players. The best event they have is in October when you walk up to the pub they have pumpkins so big you don’t believe they are real. They enter a competition for the biggest pumkin and i am sure they have won it many a time. Along with the pets, they also have chickens that wonder around and ducks. The pub has two gardens normally packed out in the summer, and adorned with dorset stone that have been carved into different things from huge dinosaurs to chickens. Definetly reccomend this pub to anyone who is looking to really find the country life and a nice hot pastie!

This is THE best pub i have ever had the pleasure to frequent. Not only that, but its my local and just a walk across fields from where i live!

The square and compass is Legendary. From its new years eve party in a marquee outside,the folk and comedy nights, the stone carving festival to the pumkin fesitval- non are to be missed!

Its hard to explain the atmosphere of this inn- there really is no other like it. There is no bar, drinks are served through a doorway in a corridor between the two small rooms with log fires which are very cosy. However the majority of drinkers opt to sit outside on the stone benches and stone tables during the summer The que for the bar is normally trailing out of the front door.

They serve an excellent selection of ciders and real ales, including their home made cider called 'Sit down beCider’.

There simply is nowhere better to be than the Square and Compass on a sunny sunday afternoon, looking out across the fields to the sea and listening to a Jazz quartet!

A couple of friends and I once went for a hike along the South West Coast Path in Dorset. It took us a couple of hours and was really nice: good weather, beautiful sea views, rolling pastures, and a great pub at the end. That pub turned out to be the Square and Compass.

When we arrived it was warm and sunny, and most people were sitting on the dozens of outside tables, rocks, or just on the grass, enoying the sunshine. Oddly, a large number of chickens were strolling through the assembled patrons, but no one - drinker nor chicken - seemed to mind.

There was a band playing some Beatles covers, too, though they finished shortly after we arrived.

This is a proper country pub, long, low and very old wood and stone. They keep kegs of real ale and cider in a pump room here, so you order at the hatch.

Check the “Dinosaur Room” while you’re there. I won’t say any more, since it deserves to be a surprise.

I can’t imagine a more relaxed, laid-back, country pub.

The only downside was that although we’d planned to take a local bus back to Swanage, where our car was parked, those services don’t run on Sundays. The day was so nice we decided to walk back anyway (along the road, though, a much shorter trip than the coastal path).

EDIT: I was back again today, and despite the weather being crap - or maybe because of it - this pub was even better. We walked down to the ocean, to watch the surf pound the cliffs by the old quarry. We wedged into one of the tiny rooms and ate pasties and drank Ringwood ale. We gazed in wonder at the bizarre little fossil-and-beach-item museum at the back.

I love this pub. I love this pub so much that if you could marry pubs, I would marry this one. Actually, if you could marry pubs I’d probably be a polygamist, or at least keep a mistress in Fritham. But I digress.

You can come anytime, but I came when there was a beer festival on, after a hard days climbing a few E1’s on Swanage cliffs. I was with a number of climbing geeks who insisted on cooking something in the car park, so can’t comment on the food, if there is any. But the ales… oh the ales… and the garden, and the tiny pokey rooms.

I love you square and compasses.

Great little pub. The ceiling is so low that you can barely stand up in some of the rooms. Really nice beers on draft when i went there last time, as well as an impromptu cider festival. Perfect after a walk along the coast, or some climbing.