Staycation in Dorset

Since my husband and I first met, we have always spent a week off at home in the summer holidays exploring our beautiful county. After so many years we often return to familiar places and discover something new. This is Kimmeridge in the Purbecks in the south-east of Dorset. These boat sheds still provide shelter for the small local boats that fish out of here for lobster and crab. 


One of the buildings has been converted into marine centre for Dorset Wildlife Trust. As we were looking at the exhibits inside, we were encouraged to rush outside to see a seal that had appeared in the bay. I'm afraid I did not manage to capture it on camera - it's head kept bobbing in and out of the water. I just took lots of images of the sea!  It was wonderful to watch the seal in it's natural habitat.




A new addition to this coastline this year is a sculpture by Anthony Gormley to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Landmark trust who restore old buildings. It looked quite small in the vast landscape looking out to sea. It is a shame it will only be there until May 2016. Other sculptures to celebrate this anniversary are at Lundy, Suffolk, Warwickshire, and Argyll and Bute, see the 3 minute video here.




We climbed the headland to look at Clavell Tower which was built in 1830 as an observatory and folly. The cliffs have eroded over time and in 2006 it was moved brick by brick to it's new location.


Our daughter and Tavi  are standing where it used to be. The tower belongs to the Landmark Trust (mentioned above) and you can even stay there, see here if you want a peak inside!  (NB It's not a sponsored post I just love looking at interiors especially if they are unusual or quirky.)

Another day we revisited Lyme Regis - this time to disappear from the crowds and head inland. With the glorious sunshine we had to begin our walk by looking out at sea!


 Leaving the busy seaside we followed the river up-stream to Uplyme. Through shady paths with just the sound of trickerling water as our companion. This peaceful location was once the pathway taken in 1685 by villagers from Somerset and Dorset who came to Lyme Regis to support the exiled Duke of Monmouth in his ill fated attempt to topple the King James II.



Past a beautiful mill house and other picturesque thatch cottages with names capturing the countryside around them.


We headed over a village cricket ground with a colourful cricket pavilion. It must be wonderful to sit here on a sunny afternoon watching the cricket and admiring the view.


We then walked along empty country lanes until we reached this viaduct. It use to carry trains between Axminster and Lyme Regis but sadly it was one of the lines axed in the 1960's. It must have been a fantastic journey to the sea. 


Heading over the meadows and through some woods we eventually arrived back at the sea. The view was so stunning we just had to stop and marvel at it for a while. It is even better in real life!


Heading back to the car we looked down at those who hadn't been quite so energetic as us!


  On another sunny evening our daughter cooked us sausages on the beach and my husband did some fishing, Tavi did try to fish too and was frustrated when he had to watch from a distance!
 I wandered along the edge of the beach and tried to capture these seed heads glowing in the sunlight.



The fishing was unsuccessful for us, but maybe others might have been luckier !


When the sun shines holidays in the United Kingdom don't seem such a bad idea after all! Do you also spend some of your holidays at home?
Sarah x

Comments

  1. That last photo is beautiful! I think it's a great idea to have a week off to explore your local area each year. When we have time off at home, it gets eaten up by chores, visiting elderly people etc!

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  2. We haven't gone abroad this year- we spent a week in Northumberland with my inlaws, 10 days in the Chilterns at our annual music camp and then we are going to spend just under a week in Oxfordshire at my sister-in-law's so we should have a jolly old British holiday!x

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  3. Sorry, so absorbed in answering your final quetstion that I forgot to say what picturesque photos these are, I love the bridge and the Cricket club! Poor Tavi, he longs for fish hunting! x

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  4. Lovely photos! I agree that holidaying in the UK is wonderful. Most of our holidays have been in this country. We usually have a week away followed by some day trips in the second week. Your walk looks very beautiful, and I especially love the boat sheds and the Gormley statue - it's a shame it's not staying.
    Cathy x

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  5. What gorgeous photos, especially the last two. I loved Kimmeridge so much when we visited it a few years ago, such a lovely spot. You live in a most wonderful place, definitely worthy of holidaying at home. And with sausages cooked on the beach and a fabulous sunset, what more could you want? Perfect. CJ xx

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  6. All so gorgeous and after just giving my weenies a bath in the shower with me, I can just imagine Tavi and her bath after those days at the beach.

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  7. Wonderful scenery and history. If I lived where you live, I'd be out exploring all the time!!

    Enjoy! xox

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  8. I think I love staycations the best. We do stay home a lot for our holidays and always enjoy ourselves. I just live the area you live in. The thatched roof cottages, sea, meadows and that cricket club! I do not like a crowded beach, at all, so I would have walked inland too.

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  9. Haha, I have holiday each day, I'm at home.
    Dorset is wonderful, but also very expensive for us. The cottages are exorbitant. And I do not like so much people on one place. So we make our holidays mostly in September.

    Sigrun

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  10. Holidaying at home in uk is lovely. Does the Gormley statue 'drown' twice a day like the ones in Morecambe Bay? That gives me nightmares! I liked his ones on the tops of buildings better.

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    1. I don't know whether the statue drowns at high tide. It must be not such a pleasant sight seeing the statutes submerged. Sarah x

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  11. Hey Sarah,
    What beautiful photography. I do enjoy a staycation. The Anthony Gormley sculpture is rather beautiful. Haunting too. As for the cricket club house...what a wonderful building. We are off to Poole on Thursday to stay for a few days, and I'm hoping to get to Lyme Regis or thereabouts. Olly is desperate to go fossil hunting.
    I love the UK. There is so much diversity here. Even the weather can't spoil it!
    Leanne xx

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    1. I hope Olly gets to find some fossils. Charmouth and Lyme Regis are good locations - just don't get too close to the cliffs as they are quite unstable. Sarah x

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  12. You had a wonderful time exploring and finding new places and old favourites too! The beach at Lyme Regis sure was packed wasn't it! We try and avoid it at this time of year because of that, so I imagine that your walk to Uplyme would certainly have appealed to us! Amazing to see the tower too, not somewhere that I knew before, so thank you for taking us along! xx

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  13. Oh Sarah, like you, we spent the remainder of our holiday right here at home. We had started off in June in our honeymoon spot: Carmel, California, where the sea intrigued us every day. But when we returned to Minnesota where there are only lakes, but GORGEOUS ONES, we set out to explore, and discover we DID. Our state is beautiful, but we didn't have to go too far outside of our metro area of Minneapolis to find NEW places that we'd never seen before! This summer was truly a time of discovery, and thank goodness I finally took my photography more seriously. I don't leave the house without my camera!

    GORGEOUS beaches, fantastic details and of course, there's Tavi.....

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  14. We've lived in this area for 46 years so we feel we've seen everything we want to see. Before my husband retired our vacations would always be somewhere we had to travel to since we had the time. Weekends were reserved for any local sightseeing. I suspect if we went to your island we could find something new to explore every day for the next 20 years! Wouldn't that be grand! But I will have to settle for "staycationing" vicariously through your beautiful web journal.

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  15. We stayed in Suffolk last week and had a lovely time. With all that is happening in the world, it's nice to go somewhere you feel relatively safe. Your pictures are beautiful xxxx

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  16. Beautiful sceneries of your wonderful country and oh how I should like to stay once in that Clavell tower. This year we also stay in our own country because my very old parents are in a bad condition. Otherwise, we definitely had been in May in your country. A long time ago when the daughters were still at home we were on holidays in Bridport, my husband brought us by car to Lyme Regis and M., C. and myself walked along the coastal path on the cliffs back to West Bay. A very long walk but the scenery was of an outstanding beauty.

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  17. We were overseas this year but do love to holiday at home too. Don't we love in a special country? It looks like you had a wonderful time. Juliex

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  18. Hubs is off work next week and we will be holidaying at home which is something we do now more often since we've downsized. Thanks for the LAND video link - I hope I can get to see the Antony Gormley sculpture in Warwickshire. Claire xo

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  19. I wish I could join you, it looks so nice and cool. We've had record breaking temperatures all week and we are positively wilting.
    Amalia
    xo

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  20. I really like the last photo showing the yellow sky - it must be something to do with the atmosphere beside sea. I have only managed yellow skies in Turkey during the dying embers of the day but again from the seashore.

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  21. I don't know about you, but for us, living by the sea makes us feel as if we are on holiday all the time. But oh, wait a minute, we don't have to go to work any more - so we are on holiday all the time.....

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    1. I do still work but since moving further down the coast the weekends are almost as good as being on holiday! Sarahx

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  22. What a wonderful staycation, and what a great tradition to have established. I can't believe how crowded the beach is in that picture. No wonder you headed in the other direction!

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  23. We feel like we are on holiday when we're not at work too Sarah. It is so lovely to live by the sea and we like you really do appreciate its beauty and ever changing interest. We had a quick break to Cornwall (The Minack Theatre and then over to Trebarwith Strand) and stayed by the sea. Next year we are really treating ourselves and have already booked a weeks holiday in Scotland on the west coast.
    Beautiful photographs and what a lovely walk...I could not stand being squashed on the beach with all the tourists.

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  24. Dear Sarah!

    Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous and that last one just feels so much summer. A lovely post. And I agree with you, it's so nice to be a tourist in your own surrondings. Sometimes I think we're so focused on getting abroad or far away on our holidays and tend to forget how much beauty and exciting things we've just outside or own doorstep. And it's nice to remind oneself now and then. :)

    Take care sweet Sarah and enjoy those beautiful summer days.♥

    Charlie
    xx

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  25. Dear Sarah,

    What a beautiful coastline Dorset has! So much to see and those views......I can imagine why you and your husband enjoy exploring your beautiful county so much.

    Have a lovely evening!

    Madelief x

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  26. Sarah, I so enjoyed reading this post and looking at your lovely photo's.
    Lyme Regis is such a popular place but Uplyme looks gorgeous.

    We enjoyed a few days away recently but alas the weather wasn't too brilliant. We did get to Mudeford which is in Dorset ... http://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/now-isnt-that-typical.html ... but alas no fishing or crabbing - better luck next time I think!

    Hope you've had a good weekend and all good wishes for the week ahead.

    All the best Jan

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  27. I love staying at home in the summer and discover places just as a tourist might! Anyone who lives near the sea is so lucky. I loved your beautiful photos Sarah. You live in one on my favourite parts of England. B x

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  28. More amazing photos of Dorset. Glad you are enjoying your summer. Looks nice like you are having some nice weather. We are having some hot and humid days. Not the type of weather to venture out in. One more month and we should be having some nicer weather.
    Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful day.
    Blessings,
    Bobbie Lynn

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  29. Your photos of Kimmeridge have bought back some happy memories for me. My eldest son done one of his University placements at the Marine Centre there and we spent some lovely times visiting him while he was staying there. xx

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  30. Dorset is my absolute favourite place in the UK. Love it. I've just included your post in a Blog Love round-up on my blog http://www.athomewithmrsm.com/2015/09/blog-love.html

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