Lulworth Cove Dorset UK
a short story of the history of Lulworth Cove on the Jurassic Coast of Southern England
Lulworth Cove is well known the site of a fossil forest east of the cove. The once huge forest now consists of tree stumps turned to stone. They stand on the cliff halfway between the sea and the top of the cliff.
Originally the forest at Lulworth Cove consisted of giant cyad trees and very primitive pines until the clay and freshwater limestone buried this once magnificent forest in the south of England. The limestone protected it for melenium until the forest was again exposed by natural erosion.
There are numerous warning signs around Lulworth Cove about the dangerous cliffs, for both walkers and dogs. Please take care around the Cove cliffs, especially in high summer season when thousands of tourists are cwalking the same paths as you and the narrow dirt pathways can become very overcrowded and dangerous.
These dangerous cliffs of Lulworth Cove were a great haunt for smugglers. The circular shape of the cliffs surrounding Lulworth Cove gave calm shelter to the smugglers blamed for deaths and contraband arriving on the Dorset coast.
Although the dinosaurs are now extinct, Lulworth Cove still hosts many variations of wildlife and forna, please be considerate to the remaining residents!
Lulworth Cove Dorset has been awarded World Heritage status for very good reason. This Jurassic coastline is still relatively unexplored and extremely scenic. Fossil finds are numerous and there are many stone circles in the area. Maiden Castle which is not far from Dorchester is the largest Iron Age hill fort in all Europe, Corfe Castle is near Lulworth Cove and worthy of a visit (click here to see photos of Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck) and of course there is the myth of the famous giant figure of the naked giant man, etched into the chalk hill of Cerne Abbas who keeps watch over the village of Cerne Abbas while wielding a club. Ancient myth was that if a woman went and sat on the etched stone, it would increase her fertility.
Lulworth Castle is open to the general public and you have a choice to pay to walk around the grounds and enter the old family church, to pay to walk around the inside of the castle - or both. Bear in mind that the Lulworth castle is from the 17th century.
