The Great Outdoors – August 2019

Cribyn & N escarpment

from Pen y Fan

104 The Great OutdoorsAugust 2019

valley running down to a
secluded bay must have been
beautiful in the 1940s. Empty
except for the echo of those
former lives, the area today is
simply stunning.
Two distinct ridges, running
parallel and almost east-west,
bound the valley cradling
Tyneham. These ridges form
a fine frame around which to
walk, and if you stick to the
yellow-waymarked footpaths,
and heed the countless warning
signs, you can enter what is still
a live firing range over most
weekends. This walk, running
along a figure-of-eight route,
was designed to make the most
of these ridges, the coast, and
of course the village itself.

Although missing roofs,

windows and doors, the walls

to the village houses still

stand, and information boards

with evocative black-and-

white photos of the former

inhabitants offer a glimpse into

that lost and now very different

existence. The church looks

undamaged, set in a curved

yard. And as if still awaiting

a trail of reluctant pupils, the

schoolhouse appears unaltered

since the 1940s too, having

been rebuilt by the wardens

and volunteers caring for

the village. A barn, used as a

theatre before WWII, sits in

a farmyard that also survives

largely intact.

But it is perhaps from the

two ridges, gazing down on

the valley and Warbarrow

Bay where only the outline of

former fishermen’s cottages

now look out towards Portland,

that the true sense of this land

and its troubling history can

be appreciated to the full.

Amongst eroded banks and

lynchets that hint at the ancient

use and development of the

land, huge marker boards dot

the hillside at regular intervals,

each displaying a painted

number over two metres high.

They are stark reminders of the

need for continued use of this

seemingly tranquil little vale

to test the aim of mortar, gun

and tank.

Further information

Maps: OS 1:25,000

Explorer sheet OL15

(Purbeck and South Dorset)

Transport: None to

the start

i

Information:

tynehamvillage.org

For details of opening days

visit tynehamopc.org.uk

or phone 01929 404819

[Captions clockwise from top]

Above Gad Cliff; Dropping

downhill to Tyneham; Looking

down from Flower’s Barrow

hillfort to Worbarrow Bay