On Foot

On Foot RINGSTEAD AND WHITE NOTHE

Emma Tabor and Paul Newman

Distance: 4¾ miles Time: Approx. 2¾ hours Park: Ringstead Bay car park (fees apply) Walk Features: This is a good hike to start the new year with! The route starts with a gradual incline to reach the top of White Nothe from Ringstead and there is one steep descent on the return from Falcon Barn. The outer route makes the most of this stunning section of the Dorset coast, with sweeping views across Weymouth Bay as you walk up to White Nothe and then views to the east, past Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove towards St Aldhelm’s Head. Care needs to be taken along the cliff edge, particularly on the approach to White Nothe. The return section along Old Dagger’s Gate Road is straightforward and looks inland towards the Frome and Piddle valleys. It’s a walk best enjoyed when the low winter light is playing across the Channel. Refreshments: The Smuggler’s Inn, Osmington >

Each month we devise a walk for you to try with your family and friends (including four-legged members) pointing out a few interesting things along the way, be it flora, fauna, architecture, history, the unusual and sometimes the unfamiliar. For January we walk from Ringstead to the top of White Nothe, discovering a wealth of unusual buildings and structures including the wooden chapel of St Catherine’s by the Sea, Ringstead radar station, White Nothe coastguard cottages and various barns and tumuli. It’s also possible to take a detour at the end and make another, much smaller, circuit around the woods to the west of Ringstead and the remains of Ringstead village, as well as taking time to view the marvellous sweep of Ringstead Bay overshadowed by the protective bulk of White Nothe. The views west to Portland and Weymouth and across the Channel are dramatic, while the views east reveal some of the rock formations and deep geological time for which this coast is known. With such a dramatic and inspiring landscape, it’s not surprising that the area was home to writers and artists between the two World Wars, with Llewellyn Powys living in the coastguard cottages at White Nothe and his brother, Theodore, living in nearby East Chaldon, as well as Sylvia Townsend Warner, Valentine Ackland and Elizabeth Muntz to name but a few.

Directions Start: SY 752 814 1 Park in the beach car park at Ringstead Bay. Note: fees apply. Make your way south towards the beach and, after the kiosk, turn left to follow a coast path sign to White Nothe 1¾ miles. 2 Walk down this track with cottages and the sea on your right. Keep on this track for a few hundred yards as it winds away from the sea and up towards the cliffs and White Nothe. At a sign for National

Trust South Down, on the left, it is worth a quick detour to see the remains of Ringstead radar station. Back on the footpath, go through a kissing gate then up the footpath - as you look back there are now good views towards Portland. Keep walking more steeply uphill until you reach the small wooden chapel of St Catherine’s by the Sea on your right. Take time to explore this beautiful little chapel, as well as the grounds with benches looking out over the channel. One of the surprising features of this chapel are the windows etched by

Simon Whistler, son of Sir Lawrence Whistler who engraved the windows of nearby Moreton church. 3 Walk back to the footpath and turn right. Almost immediately after the church there is a footpath sign. Here, bear right along the smaller path just signed for White Nothe (not the one marked for the Coast Path). Pass a house on your right with a large wooden fence around part of its garden.

Follow this path to soon cross a drive which leads to Holworth House. On the other side of the drive, go through a kissing gate and into a field.

The path now runs about 10 metres inside a fence and then up some steps - keep climbing until you reach another kissing gate and the highest point of the walk. There are incredible views all around from here. Go through this gate to follow along the footpath - be aware of steep drops along here as the path runs along the cliff edge. Keep on the

path until you reach the former coastguard cottages at White Nothe. 4 Here, it is worth walking to the southern tip of

White Nothe to the lookout post. A marker stone indicates a steep smuggler’s path down to the beach. In a previous walk we looked at some of the inspiration for the novel Moonfleet and this path is believed to be the setting for the scene where John and Elzevir make an impossible escape from the excise men on the beach. To the left is a stone bench which makes a good spot for a picnic, especially as the views from here take in the dazzling white chalk cliffs which roll and dip towards the broken limestone band comprising

Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove and beyond to St

Aldhelm’s Head. 5 Go back to the coastguard cottages. Keeping them on your left, carry on along the footpath until it starts to bend around to the left and the cliffs are straight in front of you. After 400 yards, a marker stone indicates straight on to Lulworth Cove and

Durdle Door, and left for Daggers Gate and South

Down NT. Here, go left, away from the sea and through a metal kissing gate into a field. Follow the footpath along the fence, keeping this on your left.

Just after a couple of burial mounds on your left, you meet a stone sign and a metal gate. Here, go sharp left through this gate, now starting to walk back towards Ringstead. This track is called Old

Daggers Gate Road. 6 Follow this straight, grassy track with lovely views to your right, inland. After ⅓ mile the track goes slight right and then, after 100 yards, slight left, following the field boundary. Go through a small metal gate beside a large metal gate and then onto a stone/flint track. Head down towards another set of gates. Go through these, continuing on the track, past a fine-looking thatched barn on your left and then up through a small metal gate to the right of a larger gate to meet the track coming from

Holworth House. Turn right onto the track. 7 Follow this track, passing a drive on your left for

Marren and other cottages. Keep straight on up the track, through an open gateway and then another open gateway. Just past the entrance for Falcon

Barn, on your right, look out for a footpath sign on your left. Here, turn left down a narrow grassy and overgrown footpath. After a few yards, take the first right and, in a few more yards, reach a stile.

Cross this, into a field which slopes away in front of you. Walk straight down this hill, looking out for another stile in the hedge on your left, about halfway down the hill (don’t go all the way to the bottom to Southdown Farm). Go over this stile into the adjacent field and walk across the field, keeping parallel to the sea and aiming for the right-hand corner of this field. After crossing a track coming from the farm, go through another gate with a stile, then straight over this field keeping parallel to the hedge on the right-hand side. Again, head for the right-hand corner with a stile, taking you into a boggy area with a pond. Go slight right, across a small, wooden footbridge, then over another stile, into a paddock, going straight ahead to then leave the paddock by a stile and onto the road. Turn left to take you back to the car park and the start.