To check that this walk is suitable for you click here where you can find additional mapping and photographs showing gradients, path surfaces, and other detailed information.

Durlston is a fabulous 113 hectare (280 acre) countryside paradise and National Nature Reserve, consisting of sea-cliffs, coastal limestone downland, haymeadows, hedgerows and woodland.

This short walk starts at the visitor centre and descends down and along the spectacular limestone clifftops to Durlston Head.

This walk starts at the Durlston Country Park Visitor Centre (free entry), and from here it is signed along the whole route using waymarks with a picture of a Shag. After leaving the car park behind you soon descend down to the Coast Path. From here you can look across to the whitewashed buildings of the Anvil Point lighthouse, built in 1881 following three nearby shipwrecks in the winter of 1878 -9.

The tall, metal posts on the slope above mark the eastern limit of a ‘Measured Mile’. An identical set of markers can be seen exactly one nautical mile to the west. Despite advances in technology, ships still use the markers for timed sea trials. To offset the effects of tide and weather, several journeys are made between posts to obtain an average reading.

Going east you soon pass the blocked off (for safety reasons) entrance to the Tilly Whim caves – a tunnel leading through to the limestone quarries and caves on the coast below. A ‘whim’ was a timber derrick, similar to those that can still be seen on the Isle of Portland. It was used in calm weather conditions to lower blocks of limestone onto barges below. Thus the name Tilly Whim is usually explained to be derrick of a man called Tilly. The hard Portland limestone, deposited 165 million years ago, has been eroded by the sea to form sheer cliffs, which are now the home to nationally important colonies of seabirds.

In early spring the resident shags and herring gulls are joined by guillemots, razorbills and fulmars to create a spectacle of sights and sounds. As part of the Durlston Marine Project a video camera has been attached to the cliff, opposite the main guillemot colony, enabling live pictures to be beamed back to the Visitor Centre. The Marine Project has also highlighted the importance of Durlston’s coastal waters for other marine wildlife, particularly Bottle-nosed dolphins. After a few minutes walk you pass a hide, just inland of the path, a good spot for watching out for seabirds and if you’re lucky dolphins. Since 1988, volunteers have conducted a daily Dolphin Watch from the clifftops, greatly increasing our knowledge of these exciting sea-mammals.

400 metres off Durlston Head is a hydrophone (an underwater microphone), the first in the world to be permanently deployed to study the marine environment. The underwater world is a surprisingly noisy place with many creatures, including dolphins, using the excellent sound transmission qualities of water to communicate and locate food. Sounds picked up by the hydrophone are transmitted live to the visitor centre, where there is a display on the Marine Project.

Many of the paths around Durlston were laid out in the late 19th century as a tourist attraction to the Victorian holidaymakers who came with the railway to Swanage, or as daytrippers on a steam boat from Bournemouth. Durlston’s architectural curiosities, commissioned by George Burt, who owned the estate, provide todays’s visitor with a fascinating insight into the Victorian era.

The Great Globe, by Durlston Head, is carved from 40 tons of local Portland limestone. It was built in 15 segments at the Greenwich stone-yard of Burt’s uncle John Mowlem. Transported by ship to Swanage, it was assembled in its present position on Durlston Head in 1887.

Set above the Globe is Durlston Castle, also built in 1887 as the focal point of Burt’s grand plans for his Durlston estate. Then, this elaborate Victorian folly served as a restaurant and had no military significance.

The castle is currently closed (although the café remains open), for essential repair and refurbishment work on the building. In the longer term, the Castle is being developed as a hub for visitors to Durlston and the wider Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

There is a geological fault running through Durlston Head, as you go around it, it is easy to spot the change between the sheer cliffs of Portland limestone and the gentler slopes of the Purbeck beds. The geology of Durlston Bay, with its varied beds of hard stone layered between softer clays and shales, is of international importance.

The inherent instability of these beds, however has caused frequent landslips, preventing development of access in this area and thereby creating a natural sanctuary. The tangle of undergrowth provides shelter for some of Durlston’s shyest mammals, including roe deer and badgers.

Half-way along the shoreline of Durlston Bay, recent coastal defence works are clearly visible. This artificial scree slope was constructed in an attempt to protect the clifftop buildings from the geological instability of the area.

From the Head it is a short walk back up the hill to the car parks. If you enjoyed this walk, it is an easy stroll from here along the Coast Path to Swanage, or try one of the other short waymarked paths through the Country Park.