As I hurtled towards a very difficult birthday, there was the inevitable talk of surprise parties, a luxury hotel stay or a city break to see the football in Barcelona, writes Jim Levack.

But a surprise bash simply isn’t my style, a short break would set me on edge and my wife would never actively me encourage to watch more football than I already do.

So how do you go about “celebrating” 50 years of modest living with a watershed break that would help mark the occasion and put a fairly unremarkable life into context.

A converted barn five minutes walk from the centre of Saxon town Shaftesbury seems a strange place to ‘find yourself’, but that’s exactly what happened to me.

I’d been dreading the date, fearing I’d wake beneath a dark cloud on a mission to buy elasticated waistband trousers and Battenburg cake. My mood was hardly helped by a colleague who signed me up for Saga and Age Concern while I was away from my laptop.

But instead, our short break away changed my life, and since we went it’s been like a switch in my head has suddenly been flicked to ‘On’.

The reasons… a simple stroll along a Dorset beach with my wife, daughter and dog and a trip to Stonehenge. Both are places where time and the passing of the years means little, and where a mere 50 years makes me a youngster.

First we headed for the 11th Century Corfe Castle and nearby Studland Bay, a 25-minute drive from Shaftesbury, a picturesque town perched on the Dorset-Wiltshire border and the perfect location to explore the stunning Jurassic Coast.

A short ferry ride from Sandbanks – “that’s where QPR boss Harry Redknapp lives”, I told my disinterested companions – this beautiful sweep of Studland Bay is bordered at its end by Old Harry Rocks (no relation).

These sheer faced stacks of white chalk rock appear to defy gravity at the eastern end of the 95-mile long World Heritage Site, which dates back 185 million years… again putting my 50 into perspective.

My 14-year-old daughter, meanwhile, was more concerned with - a. could she get a coffee anywhere? and b. was there was a beach café with wifi? The answer was yes to both, which kept everyone happy.

That wasn’t quite the case at Stonehenge where the sheer magnitude of these incredible stones, their history dating as far back as 3,000BC and the engineering feat behind them managed to captivate her for a creditable 28 minutes.

We found Jess at the English Heritage Visitor Centre making a latte last, but only after we’d had our mortality and fleeting presence on the planet confirmed by this most mysterious of landmarks.

It’s the kind of place that truly puts everything into context and, even though there was no Topshop nearby, our daughter conceded later she had found it fascinating.

Our stay for the week was the wonderful Bramble Barn, a converted cart shed a five minute walk from Shaftesbury town centre with stunning country views and best of all, perfectly located on the Dorset/Wiltshire border.

The owners had left a series of printed walks, one of which took us around the edge of this understated but charming town with its Abbey dating back to 888 and where King Canute reputedly died in 1035.

Time goes slowly here – just as well at my age – so it was with great relief that we stumbled across the recently refurbed Ye Olde Two Brewers pub offering views as welcome as its ale list.

After a couple of looseners, again to help me forget my advancing years, the route took us up the seemingly sheer Gold Hill, the steep cobbled street used by film director Ridley Scott for the 1970s and ‘80s Hovis bread adverts.

Then it was back home to the Barn for an early night… and some cocoa.

* Bramble Barn is priced from £360 per week. To book call West Country Cottages on 01803 814000 or visit www.westcountrycottages.co.uk. For more information on tours of the stones visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/Stonehenge