Length: 30.9 km (19.2 mi), with plenty options to
shorten – and one to lengthen
Ascent/Descent: 753m
Net Walking Time: 7 hours
Toughness: 9 out of 10
Take at 09.05 Weymouth
train from Waterloo (Clapham J 09.12), arrives Wool at 11.34.
Return trains: xx.45
to 19.45, then 20.34.
This Dorset walk leads mainly through the large
Lulworth Estate, owned for centuries by the Weld Family, initially through the
Thomas Hardy Country of rolling pastures, large woods and dairy farms, then –
on a choice of routes – through remote, scenic coombes to a fascinating stretch
of the Jurassic Coast, with its steep chalk cliffs, rock stacks rising out of
the sea, natural limestone arches, caves and beautiful coves.
The stretch around Durdle Door and Man o’ War beaches can be very busy with
day-trippers but the route then follows quieter coastal paths to the
fascinating coves of Stair Hole and its larger – and geologically older –
cousin Lulworth Cove for lunch in West Lulworth. Having had the Purbeck Hills
in view for a while, stretching out to the East, an optional afternoon
extension then routes over one of them – Bindon Hill.
All walk routes climb up steeply from West Lulworth to the ridge separating the
Dorset Plain from the Coast and descend through a very pretty coombe past
Bellhuish Farm and then lead along Lulworth Park, before meandering along
permissive routes through the park to Lulworth Castle (possibly the most
beautiful castle in the South) and its tearooms and church, and back through
Bowling Green Wood.
Coombe Heath Nature Reserve and Haredene and Cole Woods lie ahead en route back
to Wool.
Walk
Options
A couple of buses
connect Wool (and Weymouth) to Winfrith Newburgh (6.9 km into the walk), while
also calling at Durdle Door Park (a little off route, 15.0 km into the walk)
and in Lulworth Cove (16.4 km into the walk):
- Purbeck
Breezer 30 and 31 at 11.42 from Wool Station to Lulworth Cove; hourly on xx.12
from Lulworth Cove to Wool Station (last at 19.12) and hourly on the hour from Lulworth Cove to
Weymouth (last at 19.00);
- X52/54 hourly on xx.14 from Wool Station to Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door, on xx.16 from Winfrith
Newburgh to Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove and on xx.29 from Lulworth Cove to
Wool (last at 17.29 and then 18.52).
A Variation in the morning leads to the Coast Path on a different route,
via Dagger’s Gate to Swyre Head, closer to Lulworth than The Warren.
An Extension after lunch in Lulworth Cove leads along the cove’s beach
and over Bindon Hill to West Lulworth (adds 1.1 km and 132m ascent).
A Shortcut avoiding Lulworth Park in the afternoon cuts 3.7 km/2.3 mi.
[Lulworth Park & Castle are shut after 17.00 hours.]
A Diversion avoiding the Permissive Route past Home Farm is described,
should the route be closed.
The route through Coombe Heath with its tumuli and barrows can be cut by
820m and 23m ascent.
There are two finishes described into Wool: one through a bluebell wood
(mud-prone after rain) and one through open pastures.
Lunch: The
Countryman Inn
in
East Knighton. Located 900m off route, 7.3 km/4.5 mi into the walk. The Red Lion Inn in Winfrith
Newburgh (food to 15.00, located 640m off route, 7.5 km/4.7 mi into the
walk. The Sailor’s Return in Chaldon Herring (food
to 14.15 in fact closed on Bank Holidays), located 670m off route, 9.4
km/5.8 mi into the walk.
Tea:
plenty of places in Lulworth Cove as well as the Lulworth Castle Tearoom later
on; in Wool: The Black Bear.
For walk directions, maps, height
profiles and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.346
The lunch pub on this walk is shared with the Horsted Keynes Circular and in recent years a mix'n'match version of the two walks has invariably been chosen (in fact the original Forest Row walk hasn't been posted for 10 years). Walks like this requiring a bus connection are rarely viable on Sundays but the connections here work well enough, and the walk notes promise that this is a particularly good time of year to admire the purple heather on Ashdown Forest.