Discover 9 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Swanage (United Kingdom). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Old Harry Rocks, Swanage Town Hall, and Durlston Bay. Also, be sure to include Swanage Pier in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Swanage (England).
Table of Contents
Old Harry Rocks
Unique rock formation along coast. Old Harry Rocks are three chalk formations, including a stack and a stump, located at Handfast Point, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, southern England. They mark the most eastern point of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[1]
Address: South Beach, BH19 3AU Studland
Swanage Town Hall
Swanage Town Hall is a municipal building on Swanage High Street in Dorset. Constructed by the local building contractor George Burt in 1882–83, it reused materials salvaged from demolition works in London. The façade was rescued from London's 17th-century Mercers' Hall and the external clock is dated to 1826. It was not universally welcomed and one critic in the 1930s described it as "positively dreadful". The hall serves as the chamber for the current town council and has previously hosted the magistrates' court, fire brigade and citizens' advice service.[2]
Durlston Bay
Bay in the United Kingdom. Durlston Bay is a small bay next to a country park of the same name, just south of the resort of Swanage, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. It has been a renowned site for Lower Cretaceous fossils since the initial discovery of fragments there by Samuel Beckles in the 1850s.[3]
Swanage Pier
Tourist attraction in Swanage, England. Swanage Pier is a Victorian pier which extends into the southern end of Swanage Bay near the town of Swanage, in the south-east of Dorset. It was built in 1895 for passenger ship services. It is situated on the eastern coast of the Isle of Purbeck, approximately 6+1⁄4 miles south of Poole and 25 miles east of Dorchester in the United Kingdom.
An older pier, opened 1860, was used by local quarries to ship stone, but it fell into decline with only its timber piles remaining today.[4]
Address: Pier Approach, Swanage
National Trust Studland Bay
Museum
Address: Knoll Beach, Ferry Road, Swanage
Wellington clock tower
The Wellington clock tower is a structure that stands on the seafront at Swanage in Dorset, England. It was originally built by the Commissioners for Lighting the West Division of Southwark at the southern end of London Bridge in 1854. It was intended as a memorial to the recently deceased Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, though funds proved insufficient to provide a statue of the man at the top of the tower, as had been originally intended. It housed a clock with four faces that were illuminated from within and a small telegraph office. Within 10 years the structure was overshadowed by the construction of nearby railway structures and became an obstruction to traffic using the bridge. It was disassembled in 1867.
The structure was saved by the Swanage-based contractor George Burt and shipped back to his hometown, without the clock mechanism. He gifted it to fellow contractor Thomas Docwra who erected it in the grounds of his house at Peveril Point. Later owners removed the spire in 1904, though the structure remains a prominent landmark in the town and was granted grade II protection as a listed building in 1952.[5]
Swanage Railway
Mass transportation systems, Scenic railroads, Tours, Transport, Town, Bridge
Address: 47 Station Road, BH19 1AD Swanage
Herston
Town in England. Herston is a western suburb of the town of Swanage, in Dorset, England. It has its own railway station – Herston Halt railway station – on the Swanage Railway. There is a park on Days Road. The Swanage School is in this area.[6]
Discordant coastline
A discordant coastline occurs where bands of different rock types run perpendicular to the coast.
The differing resistance to erosion leads to the formation of headlands and bays. A hard rock type such as granite is resistant to erosion and creates a promontory whilst a softer rock type such as the clays of Bagshot Beds is easily eroded creating a bay.
Part of the Dorset coastline running north from the Portland limestone of Durlston Head is a clear example of a discordant coastline. The Portland limestone is resistant to erosion; then to the north there is a bay at Swanage where the rock type is a softer greensand. North of Swanage, the chalk outcrop creates the headland which includes Old Harry Rocks.
The converse of a discordant coastline is a concordant coastline.[7]