A limestone arch on the Dorset coast with a sandy beach and excellent-rated bathing water on its western side
The beach on the western side of the arch has an official bathing water rating of excellent, with sand underfoot rather than shingle, which makes it one of the more comfortable spots to actually get in the water along this stretch of Dorset coast rather than just photograph it.
Worth knowing what’s actually holding that arch up. The limestone here got tipped up on end by the same slow-motion collision of continents that pushed up the Alps, millions of years ago, folding rock layers that had been laid down flat into something close to vertical. That left a narrow, tough wall of limestone running out into the sea, and the waves have spent thousands of years finding the weak points in it and working through them, eventually breaking clean through the middle and leaving the arch standing on either side. Given enough time it’ll go the same way as other sea stacks nearby and collapse, but nobody’s putting a date on that.
The arch itself sits on privately owned Lulworth Estate land, and access along the coast path down to the beach is well established and open to the public. Don’t jump off the arch into the water below: people have been seriously hurt doing it, the rocks and currents underneath aren’t visible from above, and it’s not something worth risking for a photo.
Steps lead down from the coast path to the beach, which gets busy in summer given how well known the spot is, so an early or late visit makes for a calmer trip. Man O’ War Cove sits just around the headland, sheltered by a line of limestone rocks, and Lulworth Cove is a short walk further on for anyone making a day of the coast path here.
