Lulworth to Kimmeridge and Corfe Castle

Shirley Bamber gave us a lovely cooked breakfast, served upstairs at "Downalong" - it is a lovely house. We left just after 9am, posted our postcards and stopped to buy sandwiches for lunch at West Lulworth's 'Londis' shop, then walked back down to Lulworth Cove. It was about 9.30am when we rejoined the South West Coast Path.

From Lulworth Cove, the path climbs steeply through undergrowth, up Bindon Hill to the left of the cliff behind the cove. Shirley had told us that an alternative route is to walk underneath the cliff at the back of the cove - but this is only possible at low tide and the tide was quite high, so the climb was our only option. Actually, I think it was worth it for the lovely views down over Lulworth Cove. We stopped to remove our fleeces and to put on sun cream and a number of other walkers passed us, first a woman walking by herself and then a number of men (who may or may not have all been together). We were slightly worried that the path might be too busy, but most of the men turned left to stay on the top of Bindon Hill rather than descending again. We met up with the woman several times during the day, which was nice, and there were a few other walkers about, but it was not overcrowded.

Our next worry was that, despite the fact that all the literature said that the Lulworth Ranges were open today, as did the sign at West Lulworth, the red flags were still flying. We descended steeply, back towards Lulworth Cove, and reached the entrance to the ranges near the 'Fossil Forest'. Thankfully the gate was open! We continued down to the Fossil Forest, fossilised tree stumps from a forest that was growing on the edge of a warm lagoon in the Jurassic Period, 135 million years ago - amazing!

After climbing part-way down to see the fossil forest and back, the walking was initially easy, round to Mupe Bay, with views to Mupe Rocks. Here we stopped to talk to our friend the female walker, who started walking the South West Coast Path in stages last year (the 'wrong way round' - I think, though this didn't make sense until later in the day) and who had been waiting for an opportunity to walk across the ranges. She was trying to replace the memory card in her camera, but couldn't extract it from its wrapping. I knew that there was a reason for carrying scissors in my rucksack!

Next came one of the serious climbs of the day - back up Binden Hill, then along, then steeply down to Arish Mell. The beach at Arish Mell is never open to the public, even when the ranges are, and we had good views across the ranges - with old tanks (presumably targets) scattered around. We also had good views to Lulworth Castle.

From Arish Mell the path goes slightly inland then there is a long climb up to Flower's Barrow, an Iron Age hill fort. The views from here were superb, in particular to Worbarrow Bay and Worbarrow Tout, to Lulworth Castle and - in the distance - to Poole Harbour. We stopped for lunch, then descended steeply to Worbarrow Bay.

We took a slight diversion here, along a track to the village of Tyneham, which was evacuated in 1943 when the War Office requisitioned the land for the training of troops. This was expected to be for the duration of World War II only, but the villagers have never returned. We visited the farm, the school and the church and wandered around the village, then took a track which zigzagged its way back to the South West Coast Path on Gad Cliff.

We were now at Kimmeridge Bay and we stopped to look at the oil well, which has been producing oil since the 1950s. We walked around the bay to the car park, where flags alerted us to an ice cream kiosk. Even better, they had local Purbeck ice cream. We continued to the steps up to Clavell Tower but, as expected, the coast path was closed between here and Chapman's Pool. This wasn't an issue for us today (or at all) because we had always intended to head inland at this stage.

We walked up to Kimmeridge Village, another pretty place with lots of thatch - and a cafe/restaurant! We stopped for a cup of tea. We had originally planned to get a taxi from here to Corfe Castle, but we decided to walk the whole way. We climbed up the hill behind Kimmeridge then turned right onto a minor road to Bradley Farm and West Orchard Farm. It was pleasant walking, with views to Corfe Castle in the distance.

At West Orchard Farm the road became a track. The route was initially clear, though muddy and then overgrown. However, at East Orchard Farm the track seemed to disappear, and we walked right round a field of sheep before working out where we were! The track now became more and more distinct, until it became tarmacked as it lead us across the delightful Corfe Common, with clear views to Corfe Castle, a classic geography lesson of a castle built in a gap in the Purbeck Hills.

We left Corfe Common and followed West Street down to the centre of the Village - which was heaving with people. Then we walked back up East Street to Alford House, where Susie Mitchell welcomed us and showed us to our room. Another couple of SWCP walkers had just arrived, and we compared notes over our welcome cup of tea. They have walked the path in three two-week holidays. They are currently behind us (they walked from Weymouth to Lulworth today) but they are being transported to and from their start and end points each day, so they will overtake us and finish on Monday. In the evening we managed to get a table at The Greyhound and we had a nice meal there, then we walked around the mound on which the castle sits. This really is a lovely place.

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