Lulworth Cove

Lulworth is the diagram that geology textbooks use. A hard band of Portland limestone runs along the coast, tilted near-vertical; behind it lie soft clays and sands, and behind those a wall of chalk. The sea found a gap in the limestone, cut through the narrow entrance, then scooped out the soft rock behind in a near-circle until it reached the chalk, which stopped it, leaving an almost round bay with a mouth a few dozen metres wide. The process is visible in cross-section on the cliffs. A short walk west is the Stair Hole, an earlier stage of the same process with the sea just breaking through, and the Lulworth Crumple, a fold in the rock beds pushed into zigzags by the Alpine collision. The Fossil Forest, tree stumps from 145 million years ago, lies east on army land.

What you actually see

• The circular cove - a near-round bay behind a narrow limestone entrance.
• Stair Hole - the same process at an earlier stage, just breaking through.
• The Lulworth Crumple - rock beds folded into visible zigzags.
• The Fossil Forest - Jurassic tree stumps, on ranges open only sometimes.

When to go

April to October; the cove is sheltered and swimmable, and the water is calmer than the open beaches nearby. Summer weekends fill the car park early. The Fossil Forest sits on the Lulworth army ranges, open at weekends and holidays only when firing allows.

Honest expectations

The village is small and the visitor pressure heavy, with parking expensive and the single road congested. The beach is steep shingle. Access to the Fossil Forest and the coast path east depends on army firing schedules, which are published but change.

Nearby

Durdle Door is a walk west; Corfe Castle and Swanage lie east.