There are dinosaurs galore along Dorset and East Devon’s spectacular Jurassic
Coast. There are those set in stone (fossils) on the beaches of Lyme Bay,
the skeleton of a 35ft long pliosaur at the Square and Compass pub in the
pretty village of Worth Matravers, near Swanage, and a near life-size model
of a T-Rex poking out of the trees along the A35 near Lyme Regis advertising
the town’s Dinosaurland museum.
Frequently billed as “walking with dinosaurs” or a “walk through time” the
section of the South West Coast Path which stretches from Studland Bay in
Dorset to Exmouth in Devon is nothing if not dramatic. There are sections of
the walk – such as the lush jungle-like undercliff between Seaton and Lyme
Regis - which are pure Jurassic Park. At any moment you half expect a
fearsome creature to stomp out of the swamp and ferns. As it was we only saw
a mole burrowing into the soil.
But it’s the sense of natural history, geology and the sheer varied beauty of
the coastline that makes this a walkers’ paradise. The Jurassic Coast
represents 185 million years of earth history in just 95 miles. The red
cliffs of East Devon date back some 240 million years to the Triassic period
when vast deserts covered the area. As a general rule, the rocks become
younger as you move eastwards, from Devon to Dorset, into the Jurassic and
Cretaceous periods.
A fossil walk is one way of getting hands-on experience of the landscape’s
geology. Brandon Lennon is a professional fossil collector who runs guided
tours with his father Ian, a retired geologist. The walks are planned around
safe tides and only last a couple of hours so one can be easily incorporated
into a longer walk.
“Black Ven beach between Charmouth and Lyme Regis is probably the best place
in the country to find fossils,” says Ian Lennon. “It’s the age of the
rocks. People love to find their own fossil and hold it in their hands. It’s
like panning for gold.”
According to Lennon, because of a relatively calm winter this year there have
been few landslips and subsequently not much erosion which loosens the
fossils on to the beach. But on the weekend that I visited in May, someone
still managed to find part of the vertebrae of an ichthyosaur, a
dolphin-like marine reptile, and later that day I saw a man walk into a pub
in Lyme Regis with an ammonite the size of a small tyre under his arm.
There are several guides who will help you plan a walking trip along parts or
all of the Jurassic Coast. At the Devon end, Simon Gooch has just launched
Jurassic Coast Tours which he runs from his Belmont B&B in Beer. He
dispenses tailor-made advice to walkers and is happy to lend out rucksacks,
binoculars and drop and pick-up guests in his minibus – a useful service if
you don’t want to have to wait for the bus or double back on yourself while
walking along the coast.
“We’re lucky that Beer has its own microclimate and is often warm and sunny,
but it could be raining over in Axmouth so I try to forewarn walkers with a
bit of local knowledge,” says Gooch.
Further East, David and Alison Howell of Foot Trails have devised
dog-friendly, car-free, inn-to-inn itineraries in Dorset. The self-guided
trails usually range from about six to ten miles a day and focus on National
Trust land around Golden Cap - at 191 metres above sea level it is the
highest point on the South Coast - and inland to the remote village of
Powerstock and Eggard Hill where the views down to the coast are superb.
“The area has a special mix of distinct geological features, from the crown of
Golden Cap, and the clay cliffs of Charmouth to Chesil Beach and Durdle
Door. Glorious sweeps of countryside run right up to the sea,” says David
Howell.
Sustainability is a priority for Foot Trails who won silver in this year’s
South West Green business awards. “Our aim is to leave no impact on the
countryside behind us. We monitor people on a trail to make sure it’s not
over-trodden and avoid long, popular stretches because of the erosion,” says
Howell.
According to Mark Owen, a path development officer for the South-West Coast
team: “Walking is an environmental practice, but there are a few popular
stretches of the coastal route that we’ve had to stabilise with pitch, such
as the path between Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove.”
He adds: “The real problem is losing vegetation which holds the soil together.
Once this is lost through trampling and dry weather, heavy downpours can
cause the top soil to be washed away.”
For a longer walk along the Jurassic Coast (East), Tim Bond of Footscape
Holidays has designed a trail between Charmouth and Corfe Castle (67 miles)
which takes in the stunning beaches of Studland Bay, Old Harry Rocks,
smugglers coves and a ruined village at Tyneham.
However, if you’re going it alone, here’s an idea. Take the slow train to
Dorchester or Axminster. Get picked up from the station by the
walker-friendly people at the Bull Hotel in Bridport – if you can get a bed
at this increasingly popular boutique hotel. They have a quirky budget room
for walkers (from £60 a night) with pull-down bunk beds like a sleeper
carriage, designer wallpaper and a flat-screen TV. From here you can walk a
mile out of town along the river to West Bay and turn right to Lyme Regis or
left towards Burton Bradstock and Chesil Beach. Alternatively a member of
staff will drop you off somewhere along the Jurassic Coast and you can make
your own way back to the hotel. The deal is you take the Bull’s resident
spaniel Lulu with you.
Need to know
Jurassic Coast Tours, Beer
(01297 24415)
Fossil walks, Lyme Regis (07944 664 757)
Foot Trails (01747 861851)
Footscape Holidays (01300 341792)
The Bull Hotel, Bridport (01308
422878)
Why not leave the car behind? The award-winning Jurassic Coast bus
service runs between Exeter and Bournemouth every two hours. It offers
unlimited travel for the day for only £5.50 or £12.50 for a family ticket.
There is also a more local Coast Hopper service in East Devon. For more
information about the Jurassic Coast (including bus timetable links) visit www.jurassiccoast.com
