The Perimeter

A full moon guides my departure from Abbotsbury at 5.30am, thatched cottages and the ruined Abbey silhouetted against the bright night sky. The village doesn’t have street lights which adds to the Medieval atmosphere. Last night I’d eaten tripe and mash in the pub, the kind […]

Fisherman’s huts half buried in the shingle of Chesil beach like a beetle. Verdant rolling hills give the path an inland feel near Abbotsbury.

Working boats in Weymouth contrast charmingly with the elegant Georgian architecture. Riverboats Organic Farms are delivering veg boxes from their branded van. “You a birder?” asks a local man by the shore “No” I reply “We’ve had some owls just down there” “Supertankers come in […]

In off-season Lulworth the tourist infrastructure sits empty waiting for its sense of purpose the warm weather will bring. Rising from the car park a path is signposted with gradient (33%) and distance (600m) – I wonder for whom this precise information is aimed at. […]

Wareham has many fine historical buildings and a rare architectural unity that I’d last seen in Faversham. I’d like to linger but it’s still dark when I start. My admiring glances up and down the street are mistaken for bewilderment and a friendly local asks […]

I can just about make out Old Harry Rocks this morning – the dramatic chalk stacks near Swanage that are geologically connected to the Needles on the Isle of Wight. The rocks mark the start of the Jurassic Coast and a much more rugged landscape […]

Thick mist amongst the trees in Chewton Bunny, a chine that marks border of Dorset and Devon and an old Smuggling route. Finger sign proclaims “To the Sea”. At the waterfront a CCTV camera rotates high on a post in the fog. A man strikes […]