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The Dorset Coast White
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LIFE - THE DORSET MAGAZINE Telephone:
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Advisory Editorial Board Miss Helen Brotherton CBE, David Burnett, Lady Digby DBE, DL, David Eccles, Mrs Babara Fulford-Dobson, Peter Harvey DL, John Langham CBE, Oliver Letwin MP, Gerald Pitman MBE, FRSA, Mrs Pamela Seaton MBE, JP, DL, Professor Gillian Slater DPhil, FRSA, Mrs Terry Slocock, Mrs Amanda Streatfeild, Giles Sturdy JP, DL, Hon. Charlotte Townshend DL. Editor John Newth Production Co-ordinator Lisa Richards |
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unchallenged remoteness. Here, the high sweep of the vertical chalk cliffs
from White Nothe to Bat's Head allows no access from the coastal path
and its shingle and sand beaches are always deserted. On a bright summer's
day the brilliant white of the cliffs and the azure blue of the pellucid
sea form a contrast of almost overwhelming intensity. Between Durdle Door
and Lulworth Cove it is the amazing variety of coastal landforms that
Treves so aptly described which command attention. These two features
alone have acquired a status symbolic of the whole of the Dorset coast,
and are studied universally as archetypal examples of coastal erosion.
From the heights of Hambury Tout between Lulworth and Durdle Door the
view embraces a coastline whose intricacies of half-enclosed cove and
open bay, of shingle foreshore and wave-flecked offshore rocks, are unparallelled
in southern England. It is not surprising that this coast attracts millions
of visitors each year, nor that the most heavily-used section of the entire
South-West Coast Path is that between Lulworth and Durdle Door. Beyond
Lulworth to the east, the scene changes again. All this stretch of coast
is within the Lulworth Ranges and accessible to the public only at weekends
and during the major holiday periods. Mupe Bay, like the high chalk cliffs
in the west, also has a feeling of remoteness for much of the year, although
the peace and solitude is broken often enough by the alien sounds from
the gunnery ranges on the landward side of Cockpit Head. Geology has made
a fundamental contribution to the dramatic scenery of this coast. Some
twenty million years ago the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks of
southern England were involved in huge movements in which the rocks were
folded, compressed and uplifted. In south and east Dorset this resulted
in the formation of two enormous structures, known as the Weymouth and
Purbeck anticlines or upfolds. Millions of years of erosion have removed
most of the rocks in these structures, but the northern limb of the Weymouth
upfold, where the rocks dip steeply northwards (reflecting the great forces
being exerted from the south), still remains in place along this stretch
of coast from White Nothe to Mupe Bay. The different layers of rock are
arranged parallel to the east-west coast, and this disposition is basic
to the development of the coastal scenery. Fronting the coast is the tough
outer rampart of Portland Limestone, with the more 
easily
erodible Purbeck Beds (mainly limestones and shales) immediately to the
north on the landward side. The much wider outcrop of the sands and clays
of the Wealden Beds is encountered next and finally to the north is the
outcrop of the Chalk. Stair Hole, just to the west of Lulworth Cove, illustrates
the earliest stage of erosion of the outer Portland Limestone barrier.
Aided by lines of weakness in the limestone, waves have cut a series of
intricate caves and arches and have broken through into the Purbeck Beds
on the landward side, exposing the famous upfold in the rocks known as
the Lulworth Crumple. On the northern side of Stair Hole, the sands and
clays of the Wealden Beds are subject to much landslipping, which feeds
material onto the small shingle beach where it is washed away by the waves.
It was often thought that Stair Hole represented an early stage in formation
of Lulworth Cove, but this is no longer considered to be the case. Erosion
of the Portland barrier at Lulworth Cove 
was
aided by the existence of a gap where the tiny stream that enters the
Cove near the beach café once cut an exit through the Portland Limestone
to a land area to the south long since eroded away by the sea. Rising
sea levels in post-glacial times took advantage of this gap to break into
the softer Wealden Clays behind to erode the Cove to its present near-perfect
curved outline. The tough Chalk at the head of the Cove has resisted further
erosion. Remnants of the Portland barrier are seen as far west as the
offshore rocks with unlikely bovine names such as the Calf and the Blind
Cow. Durdle Door itself is a remnant of the Portland rampart, as are Man
o' War Rocks to the east. Durdle Cove, Man o' War Cove, St Oswald's Bay
and, far to the east, Mupe Bay are all examples of the breaching of the
Portland Limestone barrier and the subsequent erosion of the less resistant
sands and clays of the Wealden Beds. This remarkable sequence of coastal
landform evolution has meant that it has become world-renowned as a textbook
example, and is visited by thousands of students of geography and geology
every year. Two issues dominate the contemporary scene along this coast
from White Nothe to Mupe Bay. Lulworth Cove is one of the great honeypots
of the Dorset coast and this brings with it a whole host of attendant
problems. Further to the east is the continuing military presence in the
Lulworth Ranges, which has engendered controversy for many decades. Summer
crowds descend on Lulworth every year, but it exerts its attraction throughout
the year and fine winter weekends see its car park still busy. The new
environmental improvements to the older section are to be welcomed, but
some consider the car park to be an eyesore in the 
magnificent
landscape of sea coast and chalk downland that is the essential Lulworth.
Such opinions extend to the caravan and camping site at Durdle Door, although
its conifer screen does mask its intrusive effect when seen from the east.
The much-used path between Lulworth and Durdle Door has now been resurfaced
so that it is both safer and more durable. The Heritage Centre is a new
and welcome addition to the facilities at Lulworth and provides a valued
interpretative view of the origins and development of the coastal landscape.
Although the Lulworth Ranges have always seemed to be an unwelcome intrusion
into the outstanding scenery of this coast, they have acquired a measure
of acceptance in recent years. Since the Nugent Report was published in
1974, public access is now possible for limited periods. Levels of management
within the ranges are unquestionably both sensitive and efficient and
have done much to preserve the scenic and ecological heritage of the area.
Rare flora and wildlife survive well within the area and its high conservation
status is universally recognised. Few coastlines can excel the stretch
from White Nothe to Mupe Bay in the sheer magnificence of its scenery.
Its essential appeal lies in the variety of its landforms, the stunning
contrasts in colour afforded by the distinctive geology and the constantly
changing aspect of the sea in Weymouth Bay. It offers, too, unique variations
in scale from the intimate splendour of rock structure and wave erosion
in Stair Hole to the great sweep of the Chalk cliffs from Bat's Head to
White Nothe. Its millions of annual visitors may eventually damage, perhaps
irreparably, the very landscape assets that have drawn them to Dorset,
and the challenge for those responsible for the management of this outstanding
stretch of Dorset's coast is to reconcile adequate visitor provision with
effective landscape conservation.