Chesil Beach
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.