- Lulworth Cove
Lulworth Cove is a
cove near the village ofWest Lulworth , on theJurassic Coast World Heritage Site inDorset , southEngland . The cove is one of the finest examples of such alandform in the world, and is a populartourist location, with over 1 million visitors a year. Its popularity as a tourist attraction is also affected by its proximity toDurdle Door and other important Jurassic Coast sites.It was featured on the TV programme "
Seven Natural Wonders " as one of the wonders of the South.Lulworth Cove
The cove has formed because there are bands of rock of alternating resistance running parallel to the shore (a
concordant coastline ). On the seaward side theclay s andsand s have been eroded away. A narrow (<30 metre) band of relatively resistantPortland limestone forms the shoreline. Behind this is a narrow (<50 metre) band of slightly less resistantPurbeck limestone . Behind this are 300-350 metres of much less resistant clays andgreensand s (Wealden clays,Gault andUpper Greensand ). Forming the back of the cove is a >250 metre wide band ofchalk , which is considerably more resistant than the clays and sands, but less resistant than the limestones. The entrance to the cove is a narrow gap in the limestone bands. This was formed by a combination oferosion al processes bywave action and glacial melt waters. The wide part of the cove is where the weak clays and greensands have been eroded. The back of the cove is the chalk, which the sea has been unable to erode as fast.tair Hole
Less than half a mile away is
Stair Hole , an infant cove which shows what Lulworth Cove would have looked like a few hundred thousand years ago. The sea has made a gap in the Portland and Purbeck limestone here, as well as small Arch. The sea has made its way through to the Wealdon clays and begun eroding these. The clay shows obvious signs ofslumping , and in Geological time it is eroding very rapidly. The in Stair Hole shows one of the best examples of limestone folding (theLulworth crumple ) in the world, caused by movements in the earth's crust (tectonics ) millions of years ago. This can be found at Durdle Door (a medium walk over the hill), Stair hole and Lulworth cove itself.Conservation, Tourism, Education & Management
Location map|Dorset
label =
lat = 50.61
long = -2.25
caption = Map showing the location of Lulworth Cove within Dorset.
float = right
background = white
width = 200West Lulworth acts as a gateway to this part of the
Jurassic Coast . As well as the cove, acrossHambury Tout (the large chalk hill to the west) isDurdle Door , anatural arch . To the east there is afossil isedforest . Lulworth is also close toKimmeridge , famous for itsrocky shore and fossils. The sea floor in and around the cove yields many fossils, and oil sands beneath thesea bed form the largest British oil field outside theNorth Sea area, and contain the highest quality oil inEurope . Geologists and Geographers have been interested in the area since the beginning of the 19th century, and in the 1830s the first serious study of the area took place. Since then the area has drawnGeology students from all over Europe. In 2001 the coast's unique geology was recognised and it was grantedWorld Heritage Site status byUNESCO . Lulworth was one of a number of gateway villages on the coast with a Heritage Centre—part visitor centre, tourist information and natural history museum—which in 2002 received 418,595 visitors. Most of the area is privately owned, butplanning permission is virtually impossible, and the coast and its visitors are heavily managed. Much of the land to the east is owned by the Ministry of Defence and used for tank training, only open on weekends and holidays. The coast and land to the north and around the village is owned and managed by theLulworth Estate (see:Lulworth Castle ). Over 250,000 people walk across the hill to Durdle Door annually, so this is a particular focus for management (in the aerial photograph the wide path produced by millions of walkers is visible).ee also
*
List of Dorset beaches
*Jurassic Coast External links
* [http://www.lulworthonline.co.uk/ Lulworth Cove Online - Information on Lulworth Cove, and the villages.]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040417092946/http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/lulworth.htm Dr. Ian West's page on the Geology of Lulworth Cove] (retrieved from theInternet archive )
* [http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/stair.htm Dr. Ian West's page on the Geology of Stair Hole & The Lulworth Crumple]
* [http://www.lulworth.com/ The Lulworth Estate website]
* [http://gallery.beautifulengland.net/main.php?g2_itemId=9148 Information and photographs of Lulworth Cove]
* [http://www.nci-st-albans.org.uk/pdf/NoticetoMariners.pdf The Lulworth Ranges - Information For Mariners 2008]References
* [http://www1.dorsetcc.gov.uk/LIVING/FACTS/LandUseData.nsf/6cadf4da179fc19500256663004afece/cb589f955aaeba1c80256f1e003d8c62?OpenDocument Dorset County Council, Visitor Numbers at Selected Attractions 1998 to 2002] .
* [http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/ West, Ian] , "The Geology of the Dorset Coast",Southampton University , 2003.
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