Firetop

On Thursday it was my wife’s birthday so I arranged a night’s stay at The Beach Hotel in Lulworth Cove, Dorset. We travelled down on Thursday morning via the New Forest, arriving in Lulworth at around 3:30pm in search of our hotel’s location. Previous visitors to Lulworth Cove will know that accommodation is provided by a few hotels and guest houses which line the small road down to the shore of the cove. The Beach Hotel is one of the few buildings situated in the pedestrian area in front of the beach - so cars are technically not allowed. However, Suzie_Q being seven months pregnant, I dropped her and our travel case at the door of the hotel and the helpful receptionist provided a parking permit for the main car park.

The last time I came to Lulworth I must have been ten years old, I seem to recall we arrived to find thick fog and not the picture postcard destination we were expecting. I also remember seeing a rabbit get run over by a coach on the way there, pulling its flattened back-half across the road to the kerb (happy memories!). This time around, thanks to global warming, we experienced glorious sunshine and not a hint of a breeze (or road kill). With it being early May there weren’t too many tourists about; a few groups of first year geology students with their white helmets and a few families and couples, I couldn’t have picked a more beautiful and relaxing destination for Suzie_Q’s birthday than Lulworth Cove.

The rock formations around Lulworth Cove are well known by geologists, something to do with two continents colliding millions of years ago forcing up the bedrock to leave wonderful vertical strata and a diverse range of rock types. Dorset is also well known for fossil hunting, not something we did this time around but plenty of them for sale in the local shops. The only thing we bought whilst in Lulworth were two icecreams - made from the local ‘Purbeck’ recipe, we ate those whilst sitting outside the heritage centre in the sunshine.

Suzie_Q managed to gently take a small walk up the side of the cove with me (with belly), to the top of the vertical strata to look out over the sea towards Portland and Weymouth - it was truly stunning with the sun shining on the water. A bit later on in the evening I made my way up the large hillside path to take some photographs of the surrounding Dorset coastline - including Durdle Door (to add to my other photographs of Lulworth Cove). By 8pm I was getting chilly so I popped back down the hill to the Beach Hotel for a birthday dinner with my wife.

The quality of food at the Beach Hotel was fantastic at both dinner and breakfast, the waiter was very polite and efficient - quite a surprise for such a small far-away location to be able to match (if not beat) London service standards (we’ve experienced a few ‘local’ standards over the years). This combined with the friendly receptionist, lovely bedrooms and terrace access (with similar great views of Lulworth Cove) made this a place we will definitely return to again. I suppose my only complaint would be that the floorboards in the ceiling above us creaked rather alot at night and made the people above sound like elephants - I don’t go anywhere without ear plugs these days though so didn’t bother me one bit

Technorati Tags: lulworth cove, lulworth, vertical strata, purbeck, dorset, beach hotel

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