Things to do in Dorset

Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour in Dorset is the largest of the islands that dot this extensive natural harbour, covering approximately 200 hectares of varied habitat including heath, woodland, meadow, lagoon and coastal shore that together make it one of the most ecologically rich and varied nature reserves in southern England. The island is managed jointly by the National Trust and the Dorset Wildlife Trust and is accessible by ferry from Poole Quay and Sandbanks during the main visiting season. The island has two special claims on national heritage. It was here on the southern beach that Robert Baden-Powell conducted the camp in August 1907 that is widely regarded as the founding event of the Scout movement, gathering twenty boys from different social backgrounds for an experimental programme of outdoor activities, games and skills that directly inspired the Scout programme he subsequently developed. A commemorative stone near the southern beach marks the site of the camp, and the Scout movement's connection to the island continues to be celebrated. The island is also one of the last remaining strongholds of the native red squirrel in southern England, a small but thriving population sustained by the island's isolation from the grey squirrel invasion that has eliminated the red squirrel from most of the English mainland. The Dorset Wildlife Trust nature reserve on the northern part of the island protects a lagoon and wetland habitat that is one of the most important wetland bird sites in the region. Large flocks of avocet winter on the lagoon, and the nesting birds in summer include common tern and various wader species. The heathland on the island supports all six native British reptile species, an unusual concentration that reflects the quality and extent of the heather and acid grassland habitats. The ferry crossing from Poole Quay provides views of Poole Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in the world, and the Purbeck hills above the southern shore add a landscape dimension to the crossing.

Charmouth Beach on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset is the finest fossil hunting beach in Britain, a stretch of coast between the River Char and the dramatic Black Ven cliffs where the regular erosion of the Lower Jurassic Lias clays and limestone constantly releases new fossils onto the beach in a supply maintained by the relentless action of the sea on one of the most rapidly eroding sections of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre provides expert guidance, organised fossil hunting walks and the identification service for the finds that visitors make on what is the most productive accessible fossil locality in England. The fossils found at Charmouth are primarily from the Lower Jurassic period approximately 185 million years ago and include ammonites of various species in sizes from a few millimetres to several metres across, belemnites, fish, plants and occasional ichthyosaurs. The ichthyosaur skeleton found by Mary Anning in 1811 on this coast, while attributed to Lyme Regis immediately to the west, came from the same geological formations that produce the Charmouth fossils, and the tradition of fossil collecting on this section of the coast is intimately connected with the founding of the science of palaeontology. The Heritage Coast Centre runs guided fossil hunting walks that provide the essential knowledge of where to look, what to look for and the safety considerations of walking below cliffs that are actively eroding, and the combination of the expert guidance and the genuine possibility of making a significant find makes Charmouth one of the most educational and most exciting beach experiences available in Britain.

Chesil Beach is one of the most remarkable natural coastal features in Britain, a 29-kilometre barrier beach of flint pebbles extending from West Bay near Bridport to the Isle of Portland, enclosing the tidal lagoon of the Fleet behind it in one of the finest examples of a tombolo formation in the world. The beach is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and its geological significance as one of the most studied and most instructive examples of longshore drift and barrier beach formation in the British Isles makes it a site of international coastal geomorphological importance. The pebbles of Chesil Beach demonstrate a remarkable size sorting from west to east, the pebbles at the West Bay end being approximately pea-sized and increasing progressively to the size of a fist at the Portland end. This size gradient was used historically by local fishermen who could identify their position along the beach in fog simply by feeling the size of the pebbles underfoot, a practical navigational skill derived from understanding the natural process that sorted the sediment. The consistency of the gradient is explained by the mechanics of wave action which selectively moves different particle sizes to different positions along the beach. The Fleet lagoon behind the beach is one of the finest examples of a coastal lagoon in Britain, its sheltered waters supporting rare lagoonal invertebrates and the largest tern colony in Britain at Chesil Bank. The Abbotsbury Swannery, where a colony of mute swans has been managed since the medieval period, is one of the most unusual wildlife attractions on the south coast.

Durdle Door is one of the most photographed natural features on the English coast, a natural limestone arch projecting from the Jurassic Coast of Dorset near Lulworth Cove whose dramatic form and extraordinary coastal setting have made it one of the defining images of the English seaside. The arch was formed when the sea broke through a headland of Portland limestone, leaving a freestanding rock bridge above the water that frames the sea beyond in a composition of instinctive beauty that has attracted artists and visitors since the road to this section of the coast was built in the Victorian period. The geology of Durdle Door is part of the extraordinary story of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, where the tilted and eroded rocks exposed in the cliffs represent 185 million years of geological time. The limestone rocks of the arch were laid down on the floor of a shallow tropical sea approximately 150 million years ago and have been tilted from their original horizontal position by the same geological forces that created the Alps. The result of this tilting is that the Portland limestone, being harder than the clays and sandstones between the ridges, resists erosion and stands proud while the softer rocks are worn away, creating the headlands, coves and arches that characterise this section of coast. The beach below the arch is accessible by a steep path from the Durdle Door car park and provides sheltered swimming in crystal-clear water enclosed between limestone headlands. The water quality and clarity here is exceptional by English standards and the beach is among the most beautiful on the Dorset coast, though the path descent and the popularity of the site mean it can be busy in summer. Lulworth Cove, a perfectly circular natural harbour carved from the softer rocks behind the Portland limestone ridge, is a twenty-minute walk to the east and provides a complementary geological feature on the same circular walk.

Golden Cap is the highest point on the south coast of England at 191 metres, a clifftop of great beauty on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset where the distinctive orange-red summit of upper greensand gives the headland its name and its colour. The National Trust estate surrounding it covers over 650 hectares of farmland, cliff, heath and woodland between Charmouth and Seatown, one of the most extensive stretches of undeveloped Jurassic Coast managed for public access, and the walking on and around the headland provides some of the finest coastal scenery in the southwest. The summit rewards the steep ascent from Seatown or the longer approach from Charmouth with panoramic views that extend from Portland Bill to the east to the cliffs beyond Lyme Regis to the west, and on clear days across Lyme Bay as far as Dartmoor. The orange greensand capping the summit contrasts with the grey Lias clays and blue limestone below in the cliff faces, and this visible geological layering is a characteristic feature of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site throughout its length. The beach at Seatown below the headland is one of the best fossil-hunting sites on the Jurassic Coast, with the combination of Lias clays and frequent cliff falls producing a regular supply of ammonites, belemnites and occasional larger fossils. Charmouth beach, a short walk to the west, is one of the most celebrated fossil beaches in the world, and the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre provides expert guidance on what can be found and where. The National Trust land of the Golden Cap estate supports traditional meadow habitats with a variety of wildflowers, and the combination of coastal geology, fossil beaches, clifftop walking and the old-fashioned charm of the village at Seatown makes this section of the Jurassic Coast one of its most rewarding stretches.

The Jurassic Coast is England's only natural World Heritage Site, a 95-mile stretch of the Dorset and East Devon coastline that exposes 185 million years of the Earth's geological history in the cliffs, beaches and rock formations from Orcombe Point at Exmouth to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage. The site was designated in 2001 in recognition of the unique and complete record of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous geological time preserved in the coastal exposures, and the quality of fossil preservation in many of the rock types makes it one of the most important palaeontological sites in the world. The geological story told in the cliffs moves chronologically from west to east, the oldest Triassic red rocks at the western end giving way to the Jurassic limestones, clays and sandstones of the central section and then to the white Cretaceous chalk of the eastern Purbeck section. This orderly progression, visible in the changing rock types and colours of the cliff faces as you travel along the coast, provides a unique opportunity to read Earth history directly from the landscape rather than from textbooks or museum displays. The best-known fossil sites are concentrated in the Jurassic section. Charmouth beach is one of the most productive ammonite and ichthyosaur localities in the world, the regular erosion of the Lias clays exposing new fossils after every winter storm. Mary Anning, who grew up in nearby Lyme Regis and made many of the most significant fossil discoveries at Charmouth and Lyme in the early nineteenth century, established the scientific importance of this section of the coast and contributed directly to the development of palaeontology as a discipline. The natural landmarks along the coast, including Golden Cap, Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove, the Chesil Beach and Old Harry Rocks, provide some of the finest coastal scenery in England alongside the geological interest.

Lulworth Cove on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset is one of the most perfectly formed natural harbours on the English coast, a near-circular bay carved from the softer Wealden beds behind a narrow gap in the Portland limestone ridge that protects the cove from the full force of the Channel. The geological formation that produced Lulworth Cove is a classic and much-studied example of coastal erosion working selectively on rocks of different hardness, and the cove's almost circular plan, enclosed by the surrounding hills, gives it a quality of natural completeness unusual in coastal forms. The story of the cove's formation begins with the differential erosion of the different rock types in the sequence. The Portland limestone ridge at the mouth of the cove is hard and resistant, and the gap through which the sea entered to carve the circular basin was probably first opened by a stream cutting through the ridge from behind. Once through the limestone, the sea encountered the softer Wealden clays, sandstones and sands behind and quickly carved the circular basin that the cove now occupies. The chalk hills that close the cove on three sides represent the next harder rock type beyond the Wealden beds, and their resistance has stopped the erosion progressing further inland. The village at the head of the cove provides visitor facilities and the car park above is one of the most popular coastal car parks in Dorset, with Durdle Door a twenty-minute walk to the west along the South West Coast Path. The Fossil Forest, a series of stumps and rounded forms in the limestone at the eastern side of the cove, preserves the remains of a forest that grew here during the Jurassic period approximately 135 million years ago. The combination of geological interest, beautiful enclosed beach and the walking connections to Durdle Door and the Purbeck Heritage Coast makes Lulworth one of the most rewarding short visits on the Jurassic Coast.

Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast is one of the most historically significant beach destinations in England, a small seaside town on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site where the cliffs of the Charmouth Formation regularly produce one of the finest and most accessible fossil collecting opportunities in Britain. The town is famous as the home of Mary Anning, the self-taught nineteenth-century fossil hunter whose discoveries of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs made fundamental contributions to the founding science of palaeontology. The fossils exposed by erosion of the Lower Jurassic cliffs include ammonites, belemnites, gryphaea oysters and occasional vertebrate remains, and the fossil hunters who work the beach at low tide after storms can find significant specimens without specialist knowledge. The Cobb, the great curved harbour wall protecting the town from westerly swells, is one of the most famous pieces of harbour engineering on the English coast, its literary associations including Jane Austen's Persuasion and John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman making it one of the most culturally resonant pieces of coastal infrastructure in Britain.

Maiden Castle near Dorchester in Dorset is the largest Iron Age hillfort in Britain and one of the most impressive prehistoric monuments in Europe. Its vast earthwork system covers nearly 50 hectares of a natural chalk ridge, and the scale of the multiple ramparts and deep ditches that surround the inner plateau becomes fully apparent only when you walk the circuit of the defences, a journey of nearly a mile just to circumnavigate the outer bank. The site's history of human occupation stretches back far beyond the Iron Age fort. Neolithic people built a causewayed enclosure and a long barrow here as early as 3500 BC, and archaeological evidence shows continuing activity across several thousand years before the great Iron Age fortification was constructed from around 600 BC onwards. The hilltop's commanding position over the surrounding chalk countryside made it a natural focal point for the communities of the Dorset downland across many generations. The development of the hillfort itself was a lengthy process. The original Iron Age enclosure was relatively modest, but a massive expansion in the third century BC extended the defences to their full extent and added the elaborate inturned entrances at the eastern and western ends. These entrances are the most complex and impressive features of the site, their multiple overlapping banks and ditches creating a labyrinthine approach that would have channelled and slowed any attacking force while defenders rained missiles from the ramparts above. The sheer quantity of sling stones found by archaeologists at Maiden Castle indicates that the defended community was prepared to resist attack with considerable force. Evidence of the Roman assault on Maiden Castle was discovered by Mortimer Wheeler during excavations in the 1930s. A war cemetery containing bodies showing spear and sword wounds, with Roman ballista bolts still embedded in the bone, provided dramatic evidence of the conflict that accompanied the Roman conquest of Britain around AD 43 to 44. The site was subsequently abandoned as a settlement as the local population moved to the newly established Roman town of Durnovaria, modern Dorchester. The site is managed by English Heritage and is freely accessible at all reasonable times. The best views of the full extent of the earthworks are obtained either from the air or by walking around the complete perimeter circuit, which reveals the monumentality of the construction in a way that no static viewpoint can capture.

Old Harry Rocks are among the most celebrated coastal features in southern England: a group of chalk sea stacks and arches rising from the sea at Handfast Point near Studland in Dorset, marking the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and providing some of the most dramatic cliff scenery on the English Channel coast. Their brilliant white chalk, dramatic profile against the blue-green water and the sweeping views they provide across the bay to the Isle of Wight have made them one of the most photographed landscapes in the south of England. The chalk that forms Old Harry Rocks is part of the same geological formation that creates the White Cliffs of Dover and the Needles on the Isle of Wight. All were once part of a continuous chalk ridge that crossed what is now the English Channel, but millennia of erosion by waves, frost and rain have cut back the cliff line and isolated resistant sections as stacks and arches. Old Harry himself is the largest remaining stack, named according to local tradition after the Devil (one of his many colloquial names in English folklore) who is said to have slept on the rocks between his activities. His wife, a smaller stack that once stood close by, has since collapsed into the sea, a reminder of how temporary these features are in geological terms. The headland of Handfast Point is most easily reached along the cliff path from Studland village, a walk of approximately twenty minutes through the National Trust's Studland Heath Nature Reserve. The heath supports one of the finest populations of all six British reptile species, including the smooth snake and sand lizard, both nationally rare, and the heathland habitats are also exceptional for birds and butterflies throughout the summer season. The views from the clifftop above Old Harry Rocks are exceptional in all directions: across Studland Bay with its long sandy beach and the mouth of Poole Harbour to the west, and across the Channel toward the chalk cliffs of the Needles on the Isle of Wight to the southeast. On the clearest days the coast of France is sometimes visible to the south. Boat trips from Swanage and Poole operate seasonally and allow visitors to see the rocks from the water, providing perspectives on the scale and character of the formations that the clifftop viewpoints cannot match.

Studland Bay on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset is one of the finest beaches in southern England and one of the most ecologically significant coastal locations in Britain, a four-kilometre arc of golden sand backed by one of the largest surviving systems of sand dunes in the south of England and connected to heathland and woodland habitats of exceptional importance for wildlife. The beach is managed largely by the National Trust and forms part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The beach itself divides naturally into distinct sections with different characters. The most accessible beach near the car parks at the northern end is popular with families and day-trippers during summer, while the more remote sections southward toward Old Harry Rocks see fewer visitors and more wildlife. The four-kilometre walk along the beach from the ferry slipway at Shell Bay to Studland village provides one of the most beautiful coastal walks in Dorset and passes through the complete range of beach and dune habitat. Behind the beach, the dune system represents one of the most complete sequences of dune development in Britain. Young mobile dunes near the beach give way to older, stabilised dunes further inland, which in turn grade into mature dune heath and then the ancient heathland of Studland and Godlingston Heath. This sequence of increasing ecological age and complexity supports an exceptional diversity of wildlife. Studland Bay is one of the very few locations in Britain where all six native reptile species can be found: sand lizards, smooth snakes, slow worms, common lizards, grass snakes and adders all inhabit different parts of the heath and dune system. The waters of the bay are equally remarkable. A colony of European seahorses, one of Britain's rarest marine species, lives in the eel-grass beds just offshore from the beach. The seahorse population at Studland has been studied and monitored for years and is considered one of the most significant populations in Britain. The bay was designated a Special Area of Conservation specifically to protect this colony and the important seagrass habitat on which it depends. The ferry from Sandbanks to Shell Bay provides a charming way of arriving at Studland from the Bournemouth side, saving a long inland detour and providing brief but excellent views across the mouth of Poole Harbour.