Formed by the combined forces of the sea and a river swollen by melting ice at the end of the last Ice Age. Lulworth Cove is world famous for its unique geology and landforms including the Lulworth Crumple and Stair Hole.
Lulworth Cove, Dorset, is a small, almost circular bay with a narrow opening to the sea.
Together with the adjacent cliffs and St Oswald’s, Mupe and Worbarrow Bays it is the best example in Europe of the interaction of marine erosion on an alternating sequence of hard and soft rocks.
Stair Hole is a minor landform to the west of Lulworth Cove. It has formed due to the concordant nature of the coast (geological structure runs parallel to the coast), and shows how coves (shell-shaped bays) are likely to develop in their initial stages. The rock types found in Stair Hole are the Portland Limestone, the Purbeck Beds and the Wealden Clay.
Wow! That bay is rather striking.
This coastline is stunning!
A post on Durdle Door coming soon
We love the cove.
It is beautiful
I would have liked to walk along the coastline more than we did.
Almost perfect round shape!
One can also argue it was probably formed by some sort of meteorite collision million years ago… Are you buying this?
Nope
Looks like it, but apparently not:
https://britainexplorer.com/listing/lulworth-cove/
The is a good graphic in a book I bought at Lulworth. It shows how the cove was formed over time. There is a little bit about it here:
https://www.lulworth.com/visit/places-to-visit/lulworth-cove/
and an article with more detail here:
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~imw/Lulworth-Cove-Introduction.htm
That is a great place to visit. The colours are so wonderful. A great bay to seek shelter for boats in heavy weather.
This bit of the coast is lovely and photogenic.
Beautiful photos of a very lovely location. We went on a boat trip from there a few years ago but gosh it was so busy there!
It wasn’t to bad when we were there. It was the beginning of June before it got too touristy.