The Story
Why Gulliver’s Rest?
The name Gulliver’s Rest is inspired by one of Dorset’s most colourful historical figures: Isaac Gulliver, the 18th-century smuggler remembered as the “King of the Dorset Smugglers”.
Long before Bournemouth became a seaside resort, this area was very different: a landscape of open heath, wooded chines, quiet streams, hidden tracks, scattered farms and old coaching inns. It was ideal smuggling country.
Goods could be landed on the coast, moved inland under cover of darkness, and hidden in villages such as Kinson before being carried further across Dorset and beyond.
Isaac Gulliver’s story is strongly connected with this local landscape. Local history links his smuggling routes with the beaches and chines around Bournemouth and Poole, the Bourne Valley, Pug’s Hole, Kinson, St Andrew’s Church, Howe Lodge, Longham and Wimborne.
We chose the name Gulliver’s Rest because it connects the house with this older, hidden Bournemouth: not just beaches and gardens, but moonlit tracks, wooded hollows, church towers, inns, contraband, folklore and local memory.
Guests who enjoy history can still follow echoes of the Gulliver story today — from Bournemouth Pier and the Lower Gardens up the Bourne Valley towards Coy Pond, onward towards Pug’s Hole and Kinson, and further out to Poole Quay, Longham and Wimborne Minster.
For booked guests
The private guest guide includes a fuller suggested “Gulliver Trail”, with places to visit around Bournemouth, Kinson, Poole, Longham and Wimborne.
Stay somewhere with a story
Book Gulliver's Rest on Airbnb.
Explore the local history, then return to a comfortable Bournemouth house with a mature garden and private guest guide.
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