I really quite enjoyed my trips to this piece of coastline, I have visited pretty regularly having family days out here when I was very young, but I have also made two trips to specifically tick it off as a visited site.

Whilst the reasons for its inscription may seem a little dull,

“The coastal exposures within the site provide an almost continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era”

The reality is actually a little more interesting and you don’t have to be a budding geologist to have a nice trip here.

I visited the part of the coast stretching from the almost completely circular Lulworth Cove along to the Durdle Door (which is just the other side of the headland in the picture). It is a really nice walk, giving you a bit of exercise and fresh air as well as the ‘Highlights’ of the coast, well for the non expert anyway. Unfortunately after a few hours spent breaking open any rock we could see we were not able to uncover any fossils, but apparently this is one of the best places in the Europe to do it.

The little village of Lulworth has a great visitor centre and a fine fish and chip shop so makes a nice place to start and end in. And for those that share my silly obsession of finding the World Heritage symbol on a plaque then just to the west of the cove there is a really fine example of the symbol and the reasons for its inscription!

There are lots of lovely little towns and villages all along the coast, replete with B&B’s, campsites and small hotels, or if you wanted just a day trip to the coast the best place to base yourself would probably be Bournemouth which has a nice seaside charm, it also sits on the edge of the New Forest which is on the UK tentative list and has an airport used by budget airlines!

The coast is a nice place to get a dose of fresh air and rewards even the non experts who visit it.