From Corfe Castle to Swanage via Harry’s Rocks | Travels

Oh crikey, it’s been a while since my holiday and I had promised to post more about it. Life’s been a bit hectic since we returned so it’s taken a while to sit and go through my hundreds of holiday photos to put a post together!!

We had a wonderful holiday, I managed to get some rest in despite some pretty active days. One of our most active days was this one I’m about to blog about. I completely smashed every FitBit record I’ve ever set so you know it was pretty full on!

Warning- photo heavy post…

Mr W did some research and a bit of map planning. He had decided we’d walk back from Corfe to Swanage via Harry’s Rocks. We got the train times for the Swanage Steam Railway and planned accordingly. Now I must admit I love trains, so this was quite exciting! The steam train was great fun and well worth using to get to Corfe (there are more regular buses if you’d prefer the bus).

It wasn’t long on the train until we got to Corfe, which is a wonderfully quaint village. Walking up to it we discovered it had a wonderful array of sweet shops, bakers (where we picked up walking snacks) and of course Corfe Castle. We decided to have a little wander round and then head to Corfe Castle as we’d planned time in to look around before our walk.

As we’d gotten up pretty early we decided to second breakfast in the cafe. We had Cheese Scones with Cream Cheese and Chutney. Perfect walking fuel don’t you think?! We got cracking views of the steam train from the castle too, which was lovely, despite the grey day. Here we also decided to join the National Trust too as it gives us more excuses to get out and explore more!

For anyone who doesn’t know why the castle is in ruins. Corfe Castle was systematically destroyed by Parliamentary sappers (Round Heads), who forced out the family who lived there at the time. When it was originally built it was a defensive fort and everything passing into the village would’ve had to pass through the gates first. In the information centre you can see reconstructions of what the old fort looked like.

The walk itself wasn’t that taxing if I’m honest, despite it’s difficulty rating. Lengthwise it was about 13 miles (it’s 8 if you didn’t add on the loop to Harry’s Rocks). It was only the start where there is a pretty sharp uphill to get on to the Purbeck ‘ridge’ (not a ridge at all, a wide hill that lines the walk) that you walk along. We were greeted by some friendly cows on our journey and even saw some birds of prey!

Walking to Harry’s Rocks was where I got a little tired, but it was quite a wide path along the edge of a field with views out to Studland. So it was fairly easy! Mr W and I stopped off and sat at the edge of some of the rocks and ate our hiking snacks purchased in Corfe. Refuelled and after snapping loads of photos I was ready to carry on again.

We joined on to the South West Costal path and walked down to where the path met the beach. I hadn’t realised how difficult it is to walk on sand… At this point I really wanted to get to the pub! We were greeted here by a bit more sun though and it was lovely to hear the crashing waves as we walked.

Walking back along the beach was wonderful and I really did enjoy my day with Mr W. We stopped off in the pub on the way home for a well earned pint of cider. Mr W then cooked us his famous curry for dinner, which was wonderful.

Have you been to Swanage or Dorset before? Would you go on this walk? Let me know in the comments,

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