From the car park in Worth Matravers turn right down the road past the famous ‘Square and Compass’ pub. It takes its name from the tools used by quarrymen to cut the local stone, and the pub helps to keep these skills alive by hosting a stone carving festival during the last week of July and the first week of August each year. The pub also has a fascinating museum containing fossils and artefacts retrieved from local wrecks.

Continue down through the village and down into the valley, passing the village duck pond and green, following the signs for Winspit. On either side of the valley the slopes have been terraced into ‘lynchets’. These were constructed in medieval times as a way of cultivating hill-sides that would otherwise be too steep, but were turned back over to sheep grazing following the depopulation caused by the Black Death.

When you meet the Coast Path at the bottom of the valley, follow it up the steps to the right passing above Winspit quarries. High quality stone was cut from these quarries until 1940 and more recently it has been used as a backdrop for filming Doctor Who and Blake’s 7.

From here the Coast Path sticks close to the cliff-top through to St Aldhelm’s Head - you may find this disconcerting if you haven’t got a head for heights. This is a good spot for watching birds and occasionally dolphins are seen.

Just before reaching St Aldhelm’s Head (or St Alban’s Head) you pass a memorial to the early development of radar, carried out in secret in fields near here. At the Head there is a Coastguard lookout, which is now manned by the National Coastwatch Institution. Walkers are welcome to call in.

Also nearby is the small 800 year old St Aldhelm’s chapel, with a vaulted stone ceiling and thick stone buttresses, which is open for visitors. St Aldhelm was the Bishop of Sherborne who was venerated for being a charismatic scholar (and ventriloquist?) who advanced the spread of Christianity and died in 709AD. One of the miracles attributed to him relates to the birth of a baby in the house of the Pope's chamberlain while he was visiting Rome. There were rumours that Pope Sergius was the father, and when Aldhelm asked the the nine-day old infant if this was true, he stated in a clear voice that the holy father was pure and undefiled and ever had been.

The alternative name for the Head which is more commonly used by mariners is St. Alban's Head, after a completely different martyr who had nothing to do with Purbeck or Dorset but was the first martyr in Britain. He was of Roman origin, and was executed in the 3rd century.

If you see a red flag flying, this is to warn sailors that the Lulworth Firing Range is in use, and does not affect this walk.

Continue along the Coast Path towards Chapman’s Pool. This next section looks flat, but as you will soon see there is a steep hidden dip, with 205 steps down to Pier Bottom followed almost immediately by 147 back up. If you don’t fancy this, you can cut the walk short by taking the bridleway from St Aldhelm's Head northwards to rejoin the walk at the car park at Renscombe.

Assuming you do continue onwards along the Coast Path, the views along the coast are spectacular, with the inclined layers of sedimentary rock exposed in the cliffs clearly visible. As you get close to Chapman’s Pool look across at Houns Tout with its capping of limestone overlying sands and clay. Water can soak through the limestone and sands, but cannot get through the clay and so emerges on the cliff as a line of springs. The softness of these cliffs means that they are eroding quickly and vegetation is unable to grow on the cliff faces. The erosion also causes problems in looking after the Coast Path as sections need to be moved slightly inland on a regular basis as the cliffs recede.

Looking further west is Clavell’s Tower near Kimmeridge, which is in the process of being rebuilt further inland by the Landmark Trust to save it from also being lost to cliff erosion. Past here are the magnificent switchback of chalk and limestone cliffs of the Lulworth ranges.

About ¼ mile past the Royal Marine Memorial Garden, leave the Coast Path and go over the stile on the right, and walk ½ mile across two fields to Renscombe car park. Here, cross over the track leading to St Aldhelm’s Head, go over a stile and walk across the fields to Weston Farm. The final section back to Worth Matravers is along the road.