Durdle Door to Chapman’s Pool
Tony Cowburn explains what makes this stretch of coastline so special
Published in March ’19
Taken from the eastern rim of Lulworth Cove just after sunset in early summer
Many photographers travel thousands of miles to capture exotic landscape images, but the Isle of Purbeck is a landscape photographer’s dream and offers dramatic coastal scenery much closer to home. The greatest hardship here will be getting up before dawn for some striking sunrises, or scrambling down steep inclines or across slippery rocks to get close to the shore.
‘Stranger on the Shore’, at Durdle Door
The fifteen-mile stretch of this Dorset coast from Durdle Door to Worth Matravers has some real gems, formed millions of years ago. Some locations are very well-known and visiting them can be very special, just seeing the rugged outcrops of rock and imagining how some of the coves were formed by the relentless power of the sea over millions of years.
Looking east at Man o’War Bay showing the fascinating patterns formed on the beach as the unique rock formations affect the waves approaching it
Man o’ War Bay is less well-known than its famous neighbour, Durdle Door, but in its own way it is also stunning, with the offshore rock formations causing fascinating patterns in the waves breaking on the beach.
Stair Hole, where the folded limestone strata is illuminated by late afternoon sunlight on a bright winters day
Lulworth Cove is a stunning horseshoe-shaped bay with striking ‘folded rocks’ in the cliffs making up the jaws of the cove. The bay is almost a complete circle and as a result, sunrise or sunset can be witnessed across the water at almost any time of the year.
This shot of Durdle Door taken from within a small sea cave at the back of the beach offers a very different view of the famous landmark on a summer morning
Stair Hole, immediately adjacent to Lulworth Cove has more folded strata rocks – thrust at almost 90° to their original orientation – generally known as the ‘Lulworth crumple’.
Dungy Head, between Lulworth and Man O’War Bay, in the snow
Venturing into the ‘range walks’ through the army firing ranges between Lulworth and Kimmeridge (only accessible at weekends or Christmas, Easter and summer holiday periods) opens up less well-known but still stunning coastal scenery. Kimmeridge is another bay offering great photographic opportunities at dawn, with the sun rising over the Clavell Tower on the eastern side, and also dusk from the eastern cliff, or the rocky ledges at Charnel and Broad Bench. (Charnel and Broad Bench are within the army firing ranges.)
Boulders at Chapman’s Pool
Chapman’s Pool is less well-known than some other Purbeck locations, but offers a sense of times past with crumbling cliffs, boulders on the shore and classic ammonites reminding you that much of this scenery was formed in the Jurassic period, around 200 million years ago. Chapman’s Pool is easy to get to from Worth, although the path back to the car park is very steep!
The Milky Way is only visible in the UK on certain very clear nights and well away from ‘light pollution’; much of the Purbeck coast is dark enough to provide real ‘dark sky’ photographic opportunities
• Tony Cowburn has been a keen photographer for many years, developing his skills on subjects as diverse as high-resolution lithography for silicon chip manufacturing and wedding photography. He lives in Swanage and now concentrates on landscape photography. He is a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society (LRPS) and an active member of the Winchester Photographic Society.
www.tonycowburnphoto.weebly.com
