Worbarrow Bay — Tyneham's Beach

Tyneham Village to Worbarrow Bay is an easy one-mile walk. The nearest car park is in the village itself, so expect to walk in. Because it is tucked away, Worbarrow Bay stays quiet, unlike many of Dorset's busier beaches.

Visitors often search for a "beach near Tyneham" or "Tyneham beach": Worbarrow Bay is the answer. It is the nearest beach to Tyneham village and the destination of the signed coastal path from the car park. Because the bay is only accessible on range open days, it is quieter than almost any other beach on the Dorset coast, even in August.

Worbarrow Bay is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, and the rocks along the shore often contain small fossils. There are even reports of dinosaur footprints on Worbarrow Tout.

Opening times for Worbarrow Bay are the same as for Tyneham Village. Dogs are very welcome (on leads), and there are plenty of long walks in the area (see the Lulworth Range walks guide for circular routes to Gad Cliff and Flower's Barrow). There are no cafés or shops, so bring a picnic if you're planning to stay a while.

It's a lovely place to relax, try a bit of fishing, or go for a swim - but there are no lifeguards, so take care.

Camping at the bay isn't allowed, and there's no accommodation right on the spot (the area is still used by the military). But there are plenty of places to stay nearby - Swanage, Corfe Castle, Wareham, Lulworth Cove, and Kimmeridge Bay all have plenty of hotels, B&Bs, and campsites.

Worbarrow Tout

Worbarrow Tout is the limestone headland at the eastern end of the beach. "Tout" is an old dialect word for a lookout point, and the name fits. From the summit you can see Portland Bill and Weymouth Bay to the west, the Flowers Barrow ridge above, and the whole bay below. On the far side of the Tout, away from the main beach, a quieter sheltered cove catches the afternoon light. The clifftop path continues west from here to Gad Cliff.

The rock layers visible in the bay are part of what geologists call the Purbeck Monocline, a large fold in the Earth's crust caused when the African plate pushed northward into Europe and buckled the rocks that would eventually form the Alps. The same forces reached the English south coast, tilting layers that were once flat. The limestone in the bay also preserves dinosaur footprints and trackways; look for the exposed ledges at low tide.

Map of Worbarrow Bay

The History of Worbarrow Bay (Tyneham Beach)

In the early 1900s, Worbarrow Bay had a coastguard station and seven cottages - home to over 50 people. When the station closed in 1911, landowner William Bond bought the site. It was demolished in 1912, reportedly to prevent the development of holiday homes.

By the 1930s, the bay had become a popular tourist spot thanks to the growing number of cars. Local fishermen sold cooked lobsters, crabs, cream teas, and beer to visitors.

When the village was evacuated in 1943, only 10 residents remained in the bay area. The war had already reached Worbarrow: in 1940 the path up from the beach was blocked with concrete anti-tank obstacles, the dragon's teeth you can still see, and a lookout post was built above the bay.

A 1935 newspaper description called the bay "Warbarrow" and linked the name to the ancient burial mounds, or barrows, that crown the cliffs above. Whatever its origin, it has always been one of the quietest corners of the Dorset coast.

A History of Smuggling

In the 18th and 19th centuries Worbarrow Bay was used by smugglers. Its hidden coves made it a good place to land contraband such as brandy, tobacco and tea under cover of darkness.

Local fishermen and villagers were often involved, using secret caves and tunnels to hide goods from customs officers.

The Buildings of Worbarrow Bay

The Coastguard Station

A station had stood here since at least 1841, housing eight coastguards and their families and swelling the parish by up to forty people. It was a dangerous posting. The sea took the Worbarrow coastguards three times in three decades: five men drowned returning from Weymouth in 1865 and left nineteen children fatherless; three more died in 1874, two of their widows expecting; and another three, including the station commander, in 1886. Between them, those three accidents orphaned more than fifty children.

When the station closed in 1911, William Bond bought the site and pulled the buildings down in 1912, reportedly to stop the cottages being let as holiday homes. Some of the paving stones went to the village, where they still form the pavement in front of Post Office Row.

Fern Hollow

Charlie and Harriet Miller lived at Fern Hollow, a snug cottage tucked into the fuchsias and scrub by the road, facing east toward Baltington Hill. Harriet had been a schoolmistress, and though they had no children of their own, their home was rarely quiet: young visitors were always welcome. When the evacuation came in 1943, the elderly couple were moved to a new house at Stoborough and were reportedly delighted by the electric lights, a novelty they had never had at Fern Hollow. Sadly, Charlie (already 93 and ailing) died just two weeks after leaving the only home he had known.

Mintern's Cottage

The Mintern family lived here for nearly fifty years. Tommy Mintern fished the bay with his partner 'Tarry' Samways and kept cows and chickens on the smallholding. Tragedy struck in 1908 when their son Billy, aged just 15, drowned while fishing in the bay. By 1943, two of Tommy's daughters were still running the holding, supplying the whole Tyneham valley with milk, butter, eggs, and cream teas for tourists.

Rose Cottage

Jack and Miggie Miller lived here from their marriage until 1913, and the cottage was named after Miggie's maiden name, Rose. Worbarrow's first caravan parked in the field beside it in the early 1900s, driven down from Surrey by the three Thompson sisters with a hired horse. "It caused a small sensation," Lilian Bond remembered. The Millers later moved along to Sea Cottage.

Sea Cottage

The Miller family connection to Sea Cottage goes back generations. In 1840, when the Tithe Map was drawn up, it was home to Samuel Miller and his wife Elizabeth, descendants of Henry Miller who had settled at Worbarrow in the 1680s. The cottage stood close to the shore, with only a narrow buttressed path between it and the shingle, facing the south-westerly gales beside the boathouse slipway.

Jack and Miggie Miller moved in after leaving Rose Cottage in 1913, along with Miggie's mother Martha, a lively, quick-witted East Ender known to everyone as Granny Rose. They stayed more than thirty years, and in 1943 both were 77 when the evacuation took them to a cottage at Langton Matravers. The derelict cottage later became an image of the campaign, appearing on Tyneham Action Group postcards.

Hill Cottage

Hill Cottage stood alongside the coastguard station and was home to generations of the fishing Millers. It had a secret past: Old Henry Miller, his bachelor son Tom and their forebears had been deeply involved in smuggling, living for years next door to the very officers whose job was to stamp the trade out. Only the outline of the cottage remains today.

Sheepleaze

Built in 1910 by London barrister Warwick Draper with permission from William Bond. The Draper family spent summers here until the evacuation. As early as 1923, when the Tank Corps first proposed a gunnery range at Lulworth, Warwick wrote to the Wiltshire Times on behalf of the bay's fishermen, calling it a "monstrous local nuisance". His son Philip campaigned unsuccessfully to regain the property after the war.

The Bungalow

Started small but expanded to seven bedrooms by 1920. Home to Mary and John Wheeler and their four adopted children. After evacuation, Mary's niece Maud lived there briefly.

Gate Cottages

The two cottages by the gate at the end of the Worbarrow road were home to the Warr family from 1908, and later to Reggie Ware, a First World War veteran left with severe shrapnel wounds and a virtually useless arm. Undeterred, Reggie added a garage onto the cottage, owned a succession of cars, and kept a fishing boat called the Witch of Worbarrow.

Tizzard's Cottage

A tiny cottage tucked in behind Gate Cottages, known simply as Tizzard's, was home at the turn of the century to Richard Tizzard, his wife Mary Ann and their nine children.