Isle of Purbeck

It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north.

[1] John Hutchins, author of The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, defined Purbeck's western boundary as the Luckford Lake stream, which runs south from the Frome.

[2][3] According to writer and broadcaster Ralph Wightman, Purbeck "is only an island if you accept the barren heaths between Arish Mell and Wareham as cutting off this corner of Dorset as effectively as the sea.

The district extended significantly further north and west than the traditional boundary of the Isle of Purbeck along the River Frome.

Where the land rises to the sea there are several parallel strata of Jurassic rocks, including Portland limestone and the Purbeck beds.

[6] With the coming of the railway from Wareham to Swanage, most ball clay was dispatched by rail, often to the Potteries district of Staffordshire.

The isle has the highest number of species of native and anciently introduced wild flowers of any area of comparable size in Britain.

The species most frequently sought is Early Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes), which in Britain, is most common on Purbeck.

At around the same time and later some Downs have carpets of yellow Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) and blue Chalk Milkwort (Polygala calcarea).

Dorset Heath (Erica ciliaris), the county flower, can be found in July and August in large numbers, especially on and around Hartland Moor, in damper parts of the heathland.

[7] A number of Romano-British sites have been discovered and studied on the Isle of Purbeck, including a villa at Bucknowle Farm near Corfe Castle, excavated between 1976 and 1991.

[8] The Kimmeridge shale of the isle was worked extensively during the Roman period, into jewellery, decorative panels and furniture.

[9] At the extreme southern tip of Purbeck is St.Aldhelm's Chapel, which is Norman work but built on a pre-Conquest Christian site marked with a circular earthwork and some graves.

A portion of the coast around Worbarrow Bay and the ghost village of Tyneham is owned by the Ministry of Defence, who have used it as a training area since 1943.

Large red flags are flown and flashing warning lamps on Bindon Hill and St Alban's Head are lit when the ranges are in use.