Lulworth Cove

The day opened with sunshine, and Robert and Sally took me over to Lulworth cove, along the highly scenic Purbeck coastline. Lulworth cove is a classic small wineglass-shaped bay fringed by cliffs in the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. The pebble beach is pretty, but becomes crowded on weekends.

Lulworth, Fossil Forest

Lulworth

The area around Lulworth cove is mostly Ministry of Defence firing range and is closed to the public except on weekdays; since it was Saturday we were clear to walk the tracks. Our original intent was to visit the fossil forest, but, alas a recent rockfall along the cliffs had caused the closure of this area, so we had to be content with surveying it from above. It was still rather special.

Further along, we got to a headland with a spectacular view of the bays and chalk cliffs to the east. A wonderful place to snack and soak up the scenery.

Tyneham village became part of a military base in WW2 so the inhabitants were evacuated and the town abandoned

We then headed to Tyneham village. This ghost village is within the MoD area and inaccessible except on weekends. The village and its surrounding farmland was requisitioned by the War Office at the start of WWII for use as firing ranges. The 225 residents were displaced, supposedly temporarily, but the land continued in use by the Army, and the village fell into disrepair or were damaged by shelling. Only in relatively recent times has the village become accessible to the public on weekends, and preservation work started.

More photos at https://goo.gl/photos/KQ6gmDKRFYZzQn719.