Great to be back
We paid £19.75 per night for 5 nights/2 adults and 16A un-metred electricity. The site has 9 rough stone hardstanding pitches in two areas - pitches 23 to 26 at the bottom of the site and pitches 37 to 41 higher up to the right of the site entrance. Pitches 37 to 41 have an open aspect and slope towards the view with varying degrees of side slope. With levellers we were unable to level our motorhome on pitch 38 no matter how we parked but we were able to level it on pitch 41 but only by facing away from the view with our awning and habitation door on the same side as our neighbour. The warden said other motorhomes had difficulty levelling their vans on these pitches so he is going to see if there is a way of making them more level. The hard standings on pitches 23 to 26 are longer and may be more level. They are next to woodland making them relatively shady and enclosed. As we don’t drive off site and the phone/internet and TV reception were poor (with a high gain vertically polarised elevated directional antenna pointed at Portland), we were limited to chilling out and scenic walks for which the site excels. There is an easy permissive path from the site to Kimmeridge Bay and an equally easy walk down the Smedmoore House drive to Kimmeridge village and Clavells restaurant which is open all day for coffee, snacks and meals. Clavells restaurant have a refreshment trailer at Kimmeridge Bay but it had closed for the season when we visited. The two main walking routes are the SW Coastal Path and the Hardy Way from Kimmeridge Bay to Kimmeridge village and onto the high ridge behind the site to Swyre Head and then inland to Kingston and Corfe Castle. The shortest and quickest way onto the Hardy Way is turning right outside the site heading beyond Swalland Farm onto a permissive path that runs between Swyre Head and the SW Coastal Path. A reasonably fit person with no stopping and detours can reach Swyre Head in 25 mins but it’s a steep, Kingston in 1 hr and Corfe Castle in 1 hr 40 mins. You should plan on it taking longer. An attractive alternative to Swyre Head with some ups and downs is to turn right on the permissive path to the SW Coastal Path and then left towards Chapman’s Pool where there are 2 paths inland to Kingston and a 3rd at Chapman’s Pool to Corfe Castle. The significance of Kingston is that several routes converge here, the Scott Arms is open daily and the No 40 Breezer bus runs regularly to Swanage and Corfe Castle (Wareham & Poole). In less than 6 hours we walked to Kingston, bussed to Swanage, bussed to Corfe Castle and walked back to the site. We would have spent longer in Corfe Castle and Swanage but needed to get back as rain was forecast. Turning right from the Swalland Farm permissive path onto the SW Coastal Path is a gentle route back to Kimmeridge Bay. During our stay all routes west of Kimmeridge were shut due to the MoD ranges but we have previously walked to Tyneham.
