Old Harry Rocks
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.