Osmington to Lulworth Cove

another Greenlives Walk - www.greenlives.org.uk/walk.html



Stage 78     OS Map of the walk       Stage 80

Use scroll and zoom buttons on map to move around.

Find Location - enter postcode or place name:

OSMINGTON MILLS to LULWORTH COVE Stage 79 (23rd March 2012).

We left home at 4.45am to a deafening dawn chorus and got the train to Wool station from Waterloo. A bus from there to the Sunray pub above Osmington Mills followed by a walk down to the Smugglers Inn on the coast, we got there at 10.15 to find the pub open. Although food was not officially available until mid-day we were offered bread and butter pudding with custard for breakfast which was delicious if unconventional.

The early mist had cleared by the time we started to walk so there was brilliant sunshine and a light breeze, ideal conditions. The path goes past Ringstead deserted village then climbs steadily upwards, above Burning Cliff (not burning now) towards White Nothe a dramatic chalk headland with a row of former coastguard cottages perched at the top. The ribs of a long sunk wreck could be seen above the low tide, with cormorants perched with spread-out wings.

From White Nothe the path sweeps down to the foot of a huge green bowl (The Warrens). We saw three buzzards swooping low over the turf and soaring up again. Then there are steep climbs to Bat’s Head followed by Swyre Head from where the natural arch at Durdle Door is visible. Although only March the temperature reached 20oC and the good weather had brought out lots of walkers. On the coast there were few spring flowers in evidence (just mainly gorse, celandines, daisies, dandelions and one or two violets) but already bees and a few red admiral butterflies were around. We even saw a couple of lizards scuttle across the path.

There is a long stony path down into Lulworth Cove itself, through a car park to the short street heading down to the harbour. We stayed at the Lulworth Mill House hotel and had an excellent evening meal there.

Total distance walked 13.2km, 8.3 miles, Ascent 680m

The South West Coast Path is the longest of the official UK National Trails, running from Minehead in Somerset round the English south west peninsula coast to Poole in Dorset. The total length is just over 1000 kilometres or, more precisely, 630 miles. Only very dedicated walkers could contemplate completing the whole walk in one go, although plenty of people have done just this. Received opinion is that it would take around 6 weeks, even for the most dedicated.

Walks Home Page

Get Ordnance Survey maps on your website to enhance the service and customer experience.

You can download this route to your GPS or mobile phone by clicking on the 'View route..' link on the map below (provided you have registered (free) with ViewRanger)