Dorset Walks - Lulworth Cove

It’s a cold damp winter’s day and I just stumbled across some photos taken on a lovely summer walk a year or two ago. So although I’m saying this is a winter walk, I actually enjoyed it in high summer. But,given the vast crowds that went to Lulworth Cove this summer despite the pandemic, iId say that winter might be the very best time to take this walk across the steep coastal hills to ever-popular Durdle Dor…

The Lulworth Cove to Durdle Door section of the coast path gets crowded even on the bleakest of days and it must have been heaving a few weeks ago when the sun was shining. Now, though, it’ll be relatively quiet - and with the promise of a few warm days to come I can’t think of a better time of year to visit one of the region’s most iconic stretches of coastline. 

People have been walking along bits of the coast for a very long time. In fact, many cliff-top paths were developed by coastguards and excise-men who patrolled Westcountry shores looking for smugglers. It was only in 1978 that the various local authorities, with backing from central government, finally managed to tie the whole route into one long continuous right-of-way which hugs the shoreline around the peninsula. Until then the many sections had different names like the Cornwall Coast Path, the Somerset and North Devon, etc.

Nowadays the trail costs a £million a year to maintain. Keeping the whole 630-miles walkable is no easy task. In some areas giant landslips have required lengthy detours. Coastal erosion is a problem in many places where cliff-top paths have had to be moved inland. Thousands of fingerposts and other ‘countryside furniture’ have to be painted and replaced.

All of which brings me to the fabulous, airy, panoramic coastal walk that will take you from Lulworth Cove over the 440-foot hill called Hambury Tout to Durdle Door. It boasts one of the best laid sections of coast path you’ll find.

What you will see from that path, by the way, is the fact that this coastal zone is situated in an pleasantly rural part of Southern England – which comes as a nice surprise after you’ve beaten your way through the crowds at Lulworth Cove.

After you turn off the main Dorchester-Bournemouth and pass through village of Winfrith Newburgh, you enter empty English countryside of the chalk-land variety. It is wide and rolling, for the most part treeless – there’s no network of hedgerows like you’d find in the West Country proper, no deep sunken lanes or red soil - just open and rather lovely countryside.

When you arrive at West Lulworth – which is the village that boasts the famous cove – you might wonder about this description, because it can, as I say, be crowded. 

So too can that footpath which you’ll see ascending out of the car park heading west for the coast and Durdle Door. Which might inspire you to follow the quieter public right of way that strikes off inland. 

This took us close to Hambury Farm before veering left and climbing the inland flanks of the big hill. Not a soul did we see as we walked up the grassy valley at the rear of Hambury Tout – at least, we didn’t see anyone until we reached the top where the watershed is crowned by a holiday centre and yet another car park.

I decided to turn left here and walk in the opposite direction of Durdle Door. By which I mean we went inland again, this time around Newlands Farm to find the footpath which strikes westwards and downwards.

Why go that way? Because I couldn’t resist visiting Scratchy Bottom.

Who could? It will go into my list of wonderful Westcountry place-names. Not that there’s much at Scratchy Bottom. It is a large amphitheatre of a riverless valley that plunges toward the sea – and our footpath simply marches down it around the flanks of Newlands Warren.

At the sea-end of Scratchy Bottom, inevitably, we meet up with the aforementioned Coast Path. By turning left, or east, along it all we had to do was stroll the half mile back to Durdle Door where we could admire the giant white rock stack that boasts a massive and famous arch.

We were tempted to make our return to Lulworth Cove along the beach – but we had no idea of tide times and I can warn you in big red letters that such a thing would be foolhardy without good local knowledge of conditions and tides. 

So, instead, up that 440-foot hill we went… Along with many other strollers who were lured to do the almost compulsory mile-long walk that takes folk between Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. 

It’s all very pleasant. Climbing Hambury Tout may have been the most populated bit of coastal walking I’ve done in years, but I liked it. Especially at the top where we stopped and sat so we could admire the views. 

There’s the great empty swathe of the Lulworth Camp military firing ranges to the east – a virgin tract of countryside that has not been dwelt in by mankind for 50 years. And there, to the west, was Weymouth with its bay curving south to Portland Bill.

And below, Lulworth - with its impossibly blue and twinkling cove. 

Fantastic. A view worth 10,000 feet, let alone 440. All we had to do was descend – choosing, in our case, to take the little path on the right halfway down the hill. This takes you down past Dungy Head and its few posh looking houses, to the fascinating geological feature known as Stair Hole – which I am told is a mini-Lulworth Cove in the making.

A few yards past that gaping abyss we came to the famous cove itself, where we beat our way through the crowds to find a warm beer garden and lunch.

Fact File

Basic Walk: From Lulworth Cove inland around Hambury Tout hill – over watershed to Scratchy Bottom – and back via coast path. 

Distance and going: three and half miles, easy going – though there are some climbs.

Some Local knowledge

Handy Hardy’s Cottage

On the way to Lulworth we called at Thomas Hardy’s old cottage which is in the care of the National Trust nowadays - small sometimes crowded but well worth a visit. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardys-cottage

Swoop to see the Swans

And on the way back from Lulworth we couldn’t resist a visit to The Swannery at Abbotsbury. Not only did we see a great many big white birds - we also enjoyed the scenery that surrounds this beautiful place. www.abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk/swannery/

Winging it to West Bay

Also on the way back we called at West Bay for fish and chips in one of the may cafes and eateries that surround this Dorset harbour. A must if you love the general jollity of seaside crowds.