Swyre Head, Lulworth is a hill and sea cliff which lies on the Jurassic Coast between Bat's Head to the west and Durdle Door to the east, close to Lulworth (further to the east) in Dorset, England. It is located approximately 8 miles (12.9 km) east of Weymouth and 14 miles (22.5 km) west of Swanage.
The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about 96 miles (154 km), and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December 2001.
Bat's Head is a chalk headland on the Dorset coast in southern England, located between Swyre Head and Durdle Door to the east, and Chaldon Hill and White Nothe to the west. At the base of the headland is the small Bat's Cave.
Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England.
Swyre Head, Lulworth, lies only about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) west of another Swyre Head, which is located close to the village of Kingston and which is the highest point on the peninsula known as the Isle of Purbeck.
Swyre Head is the highest point of the Purbeck Hills and the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The hill Swyre Head lies about 2 kilometres (1 mi) southwest of the village Kingston, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) south of Corfe Castle and 8 kilometres (5 mi) west of Swanage.
The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north. Its western boundary is less well defined, with some medieval sources placing it at Flower's Barrow above Worbarrow Bay. According to writer and broadcaster Ralph Wightman, Purbeck "is only an island if you accept the barren heaths between Arish Mell and Wareham as cutting off this corner of Dorset as effectively as the sea." The most southerly point is St Alban's Head. Its coastline is suffering from erosion.
The cliffs of Swyre Head, Lulworth, are of chalk and are steep, with grassland and a footpath above. The footpath runs close to the cliff edge and is steeply undulating. Despite the steepness, it is popular for walks [1] [2] and the scenery is spectacular. [3] [4] [5]
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is an ionic salt called calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite shells (coccoliths) shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores. Flint (a type of chert) is very common as bands parallel to the bedding or as nodules embedded in chalk. It is probably derived from sponge spicules or other siliceous organisms as water is expelled upwards during compaction. Flint is often deposited around larger fossils such as Echinoidea which may be silicified (i.e. replaced molecule by molecule by flint).
Between Swyre Head and the natural rock arch of Durdle Door is a small dry valley known as Scratchy Bottom.
A dry valley may develop on many kinds of permeable rock, such as limestone and chalk, or sandy terrains that do not regularly sustain surface water flow. Such valleys do not hold surface water because it sinks into the permeable bedrock.
Scratchy Bottom is a clifftop valley between Durdle Door and Swyre Head in Dorset, England. A dry valley in the chalk, it is surrounded by farmland at its sides and landward end, with cliffs at the seaward end.
