Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE
island
THAT ISN'T: PURBECK
The so-called “Isle” of Purbeck is a penin-
sula dangling off the Dorset coast south
of Poole Harbour. It's best reached by tak-
ing the A351 from Poole to Wareham and
beyond, or catching the 5-minute
Sand-
banks Chain Ferry
(
&
01929/450203;
www.sandbanksferry.co.uk) that connects
the millionaires' mansions of Sandbanks
with Shell Bay, in the National Trust's
Studland Nature Reserve. Foot passengers
pay £1; it's £3.20 for a car and occupants
(cash only).
The man-made highlight of Purbeck
is the romantic ruin of
Corfe Castle
(
&
01929/481294;
www.nationaltrust.
org.uk/corfecastle), silhouetted on the
hill above the quaint but well-touristed
village of the same name. The castle
was the ancestral home of the Bankes
family (see Kingston Lacy, above), and
was sacked and destroyed by Parlia-
mentary forces in 1646 during the Eng-
lish Civil Wars. It's open daily all year,
and admission costs £6.50 for adults,
£3.25 for children 5 to 16. If you want to
arrive at Corfe in style, ride the
Swa-
nage Railway
(
&
01929/425800;
www.
swanagerailway.co.uk), where traditional
steam trains with old-fashioned car-
riages ply a 6-mile track. The timetable
is complex (see the website), but there's
a good service most days between April
and October. A standard round-trip
costs £9 for adults, £7 for children.
The natural highlights of Purbeck
lie along its English Channel coast (an
extension of the
Jurassic Coast;
see
p. 317).
Durdle Door
, a mighty rock
arch formed by millennia of sea erosion,
is linked by coastal path with
Lulworth
Cove
, a photogenic, horseshoe-
shaped bay half a mile to the east. Six
miles west of Corfe Castle, off the B3070,
the “ghost village” of
Tyneham
was
requisitioned in 1943 by the War Office
for use as a tank range—with a promise it
would be returned to its occupants after
World War II. It never was. You can look
inside the tiny, preserved Victorian
schoolhouse and parish church, both
frozen in the 1940s. From Tyneham, a
20-minute walk brings you to
Worbar-
row Bay,
where there's a small pebble
beach and fewer crowds than at nearby
Lulworth. The tank range is still live, but
is now open most weekends and all
summer; see
www.tyneham.org.uk
for
opening times.
The finest local lodging option is the
riverside
Priory
, Church Green,
Wareham (www.theprioryhotel.co.uk;
&
01929/551666
). Rooms are individu-
ally and luxuriously decorated, many
with original antiques. Romantic Boat-
house Suites come with whirlpool tubs.
Prices range from £205 to £350 for a
double; suites cost £330 to £415. At
weekends, there's a 2-night minimum
stay and dinner is included in the rate.
For more on Purbeck, see
www.
visitswanageandpurbeck.co.uk
.
7
5-16, £30 family ticket; garden only £5.25 adults, £2.70 children, £15 family ticket. House mid-Mar-Oct
Wed-Sun 11am-5pm; garden and park mid-Mar-Oct daily 10:30am-6pm, Nov-mid-Dec and Jan-mid-
Mar daily 10:30am-4pm.
DORCHESTER
120 miles SW of London; 27 miles W of Bournemouth
In his 1886 novel,
The Mayor of Casterbridge,
Thomas Hardy bestowed upon
Dorchester
literary immortality. Differences between his fictional Casterbridge and
the town of Dorchester were thinly veiled on purpose, and visits to
Hardy's Cottage
