Thursday, September 27, 2007

Tiki touring in Dorset...

So the weekend before I headed off to Scotland I went down to Dorset with Nicola to do a one day glass blowing course at the Dorset Rural Skills Centre. Nicola has a car so we had a lovely day on Saturday making our way there.

The last time I was in Dorset (I think) was New Years in 1996 and it was absolutely freezing! It was the coldest winter, we had a house booked which didn't have central heating and generally it was miserable.

This time I was muchly impressed with the county and would love to go back...

We drove down to Poole and took the chain link ferry over to Studland Beach. This is all owned by the National Trust and is a lovely piece of coast. We had been considering going to Lulworth Cove, but we went for Tyneham Village instead, which was just fascinating. The beaches around Tyneham were being used by the military during WWII, and in November 1943 the villagers were told they would have to leave. They fully expected to return after the war, but the land was compulsorily purchased and they were never able to go back. It was very sad, and very eerie - you can only get to the village on the days that the MoD are not using the land around it.

After Tyneham Village I went and had a look around Corfe Castle. Aside from the scaffolding it was great! It was deliberately destroyed in the 1600s, and the ruins are amazing - lots of fab photo opportunities :-). As well as the couple below I've posted lots on Flickr so take a look.

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