Dorset Walk - Cogden Beach to West Bexington
I once spent an afternoon at wonderful, magical, Tamarisk Farm in a place called West Bexington down on the Dorset coast, but as I began the long drive home I caught a glimpse of a car park just a mile or two to the west.
It was the one that allows passers-by to reach Cogden Beach - and before I knew it I was enjoying a good walk along the shore.
To find this particular corner of our glorious littoral you need to travel along the scenic coast road that climbs east out of Burton Bradstock to eventually reach Abbotsbury. Just a mile along the B3157 you will see a National Trust car park, that seems to be there for no other purpose than to give motorists a glorious view.
However, a paved path descends a quarter of a mile through trust-owned land down to Cogden Beach which is renowned for its sculptural “artworks” – and this marks the beginning of our walk. You could, if you wish, begin the seaside stroll further west at Burton Beach, which is the coastal end of the village of that name – then scrunch your way along Hive Beach - before reaching the spot where I descended to the sea, but you will only see more of the same if you do…
What I did was walk down from the Trust car park and turn left to stride along the shoreline back to West Bexington where I’d been earlier. Be warned: this is more arduous than it sounds - as anyone who has ever attempted to walk the length of nearby Chesil Beach (of which this is the most western part) will tell you, the loose gravel that these shores consist of does not lend itself to the human gait.
Your feet sink down in the stuff in the same way as they would in soft sand, so that walking one mile in it requires the same exertion has marching three on a good hard surface. What you find yourself doing is walking in a peculiar flat-footed kind of way because the normal action of planting down your ankle first then exchanging your weight forwards using the length of your foot is guaranteed to sink each footstep deeper.
One flat-footed style is an inelegant stomp which will make you look either like some kind of rustic moron or a weird spawn of Frankenstein. The other is the kind of mincing gait sometimes used by pantomime dames.
Visitors build their own rather lovely artworks along the length of Cogden Beach
My companion and I experimented with both as we made our way the two miles to West Bexington and eventually came out on the side of the hip-swinging, mincing gait.
Fortunately for us – and for you should you do this walk and take my walking-style advice - not many people stroll east along Cogden Beach, probably because it is so exhausting.
Well worth the while, though, because it is one of those big long ozone-filled beaches that is guaranteed somehow to invigorate the inner areas of one’s dusty soul. This is partly thanks to the fact that the most amazing artworks made of flotsam and jetsam are to be found along the shore.
Anyway, eventually we reach West Bexington and, don’t worry, you do not have to return along that sinking gravel doing your best “he’s behind you” walk impersonation. The return route leads us slightly inland of the beach and the reed-beds that line its inland edge.
Some years ago the National Trust purchased land along this coast to preserve the integrity of the entire length of Chesil Beach, and now leases the inland areas such as the acres around the aforementioned Tamarisk Farm – and much of the area is now designated as the West Bexington Nature Reserve.
The seaside hamlet looks modern, being basically a single street lined with villas, but the place is actually rich in history. The Domesday Book refers to a village called Bessintone and down the centuries there was a lot of smuggling hereabouts.
One local who defied the excise-men was farmer Isaac Gulliver who lived above the coast here close to the Iron Age fort at Eggardon Hill. Apparently his farm was used as a logistics centre for industrial scale smuggling activities.
If you’re driving along up on the road you do not get the full atmosphere of just how lonely and empty this stretch of coast is, but down behind the reed-beds you can certainly see why the smugglers of old liked the place for their arcane goings on.
The coast path weaves its way west behind the reed-filled lakes or meres and eventually brings you back to the concrete track that leads down from the trust car park. It’s not the longest or even the most dramatic coastal walk in our region, but it is breathtaking in its own way – and a great deal more magnificent than any shoreline some countries can boast.
Fact File
Basic walk: from Cogden Beach east of Burton Bradstock to West Bexington along the shore, returning via the coast path.
Distance and going: four miles – difficult going thanks to beach gravel on way out, easy coming back.
Hivbe Beach Cafe
Local Knowledge
Hive Beach Cafe (above)
You might face queues, but there’s a reason. The Hive Beach Cafe a couple of miles west of this walk serves fabulous (albeit slightly pricey) food in a wonderful location. http://www.hivebeachcafe.co.uk
Tamarisk Farm shop
If you like eating truly fabulous organic vegetables, you’ll find plenty up in the village at West Bexington where the wonderful folk who run Tamarisk Farm (one of the first organic farms in the UK) have their humble but excellent shop. http://tamariskfarm.co.uk
West to West Bay
If this rather lonely empty coast causes you to desire the busier funfair of a traditional English seaside resort, pop over to West Bay where there are more watering holes and eateries than you can shake a lollipop stick at.
