Dancing Ledge to Winspit (SW Coast Path 5)

Winspit from Worth Matravers

Our last encounter with the South West Coast Path, from Anvil Point to Dancing Ledge, was unbearably muddy, so we decided to give it a break until the weather improved. Today offered ideal conditions for a resumption. Because of our policy of doing the Coast Path by means of a series of circular walks, we started at Worth Matravers and headed east across the plateau on the path to Swanage, the Priests Way. There were initially nice views back towards Winspit.

I haven't been able to find out anything about the Priests Way - a Google search supplies only details of properties for sale in the street of that name in Swanage.

After a while we turned right on a path which descended to Dancing Ledge and then followed the Coast Path along a grassy clifftop to reach Seacombe Cliff, the site of former limestone mining.

The path heads inland to skirt the cove, which we didn't explore, and then back towards the sea via a steep series of steps. As we walked westward from Seacombe, the view back over a thick clump of may was delightful.

After a while we came to Winspit, with its dramatic former mine galleries from which the stone was quarried and then loaded onto barges.

We headed inland here and followed the line of a ravine, with a small stream far below, uphill for about a mile and quarter back to Worth Matravers. There was a pleasing view back down to Winspit from near the top.

Once in Worth we went to see the Norman church of St Nicholas of Myra. The church dates from the 11th century.

Inside, the magnificent chancel arch, of about the same date (says Pevsner) was apparently brought to the church from elsewhere, probably after the dissolution of the monasteries.

Conditions: sunny, hot.

Distance: about 5 miles, of which only about 1.5 was on the Coast Path. Distance covered now 13.5 miles.

Map: Explorer OL15 (Purbeck and South Dorset).

Rating: four stars.

Sightings

A surprisingly good showing of butterflies: peacock, small tortoiseshell, small white, orange tip, holly blue. We only needed  red admiral, comma, brimstone and speckled wood to have a full set of the butterflies you could reasonably expect to see in early April.

Flower of the day

I haven't been able to identify these delicate blue flowers we saw on the grassy hillside above the coastal path.