St Aldhelm’s or St Alban’s Head is a broad promontory on the rocky coast of Purbeck.
From its high cliff-tops, you’ll find impressive views of the English Channel and
also of long sections of the Dorset Jurassic Coast spreading West and East.
St Aldhelm’s Head is a natural vantage point for all things nautical and coastal
in this area, making it an excellent spot for a Coast Guard lookout station - which
is probably why there is one! No longer staffed by HM Coastguard, the watch at St
Aldhelm’s is now kept by members of the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI). These
volunteers keep their eye’s peeled for dangers at sea - and it’s easy to see why
you might want to!
What’s less clear is why someone would want to build a sturdy, stone chapel out here
with no windows! But that’s exactly what somebody did the best part of 1,000 years
ago.
St Aldhelm’s Chapel is a real oddity and worth the walk from Worth Matravers for
those of an inquisitive nature. Not much more than a stone-built box with a roof
on, only the stone cross on the top of it gives any indication that this bunker-like
stone-walled and stone-roofed structure is a chapel at all. There’s no exterior
or interior finery and no windows stained or otherwise.
The only other structure in the immediate area of the headland itself is a row of
cottages, presumably one-time coastguard dwellings. Other than that, the Chapel
and St Aldhelm’s Head itself are a good mile or so from Worth Matravers as the crow
flies (farther as the rambler rambles) as is the car park near Renscombe Farm, which
is the closest start point for walk to the Chapel and the cliff-tops.
If you fancy a longer walk, you can link up with the South West Coast Path to head
East or West or there are circular walks via Chapman’s Pool to the West or Winspit,
Dancing Ledge and Worth Matravers to the East.
If you fancy a walk that’s a little different and out of the ordinary this could
be for you. It doesn’t have the unique feel of Lulworth or Durdle Door, but it doesn’t
have the numbers of visitors either!
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