A new heritage trail has been officially launched by the Burngate Stone Centre in Langton Matravers, Dorset, to help walkers explore the area’s long history of quarrying stone and its amazing natural diversity.
The Quarry to Castle trail, from Dancing Ledge to Corfe Castle via the Burngate Stone Centre, also takes in a dinosaur watering hole and the abandoned site of a medieval hamlet, while showcasing the beautiful Purbeck countryside.
The Quarry to Castle trail, from Dancing Ledge to Corfe Castle via the Burngate Stone Centre is waymarked with QR codes along the route
A site where dinosaurs fed
The four mile southern loop, starting at the Burngate Stone Centre, takes walkers to Dancing Ledge, where Purbeck stone was once exported by sea to London and northern Europe.
The route goes past busy modern open cast quarries, an old trackway used to carry stone from Seacombe hundreds of years ago, and to a site where a herd of brachiosaurs fed 140 million years ago.
A five mile northern loop from Burngate to Corfe Castle, goes past an old Purbeck marble quarry at Wilkswood, through the long gone hamlet of Afflington which thrived during the medieval quarrying boom, to the castle, built from local stone in the 11th century.
Although the trails will be open to the public at all times, the inaugural guided walks will be held on Saturday 31st May 2025 at a cost of £10 per section, or £5 for children.
More than 100 footprints of dinosaurs were discovered in a flat layer of rock at Keates Quarry which is on the walking route
The trails pass by several active quarries where stone work is still very much a thriving business
“There’s plenty of stone left in Purbeck!”
Patrick Corbett, trustee of Burngate, said:
“We came up with the idea of this trail in discussion with the National Trust to provide greater understanding, engagement and enjoyment within our community and to give the chance to learn more about our stone heritage.
“The walking trail links various routes that the stone might have been carried along from Purbeck quarries to Corfe Castle, the most significant building in Purbeck that is built in local stone.
“Some of the families quarrying in Purbeck have been doing so for 16 generations, the Haysoms, the Keates, the Suttles – the Stone Age didn’t end because they ran out of stone, there’s plenty of it left here in Purbeck!
“The new Swanworth Quarry which has just opened up probably has another 40 years of life in it.”
David Wise (left) and Patrick Corbett (right) with maps highlighting points of interest on the trails – look out for them at Corfe Castle, Burngate and elsewhere
Walking for fitness and mental health
Patrick added:
“The Quarry to Castle trail connects the current South West Coast Path, through quarries past and present, to Corfe Castle.
“We have used existing paths and given people a reason to follow them to learn a bit more about Purbeck history and geology.
“The project has been driven by Burngate, although it was very important to get the National Trust on board as they owned most of the land.
“We had funding from the National Lottery heritage fund through Dorset National Landscape, whose interest is getting more people into walking for better fitness and mental health.
“We applied to Dorset National Landscape, who said that as long as we could get it running in a couple of months we could have the funding – it was very fortunate we had done our homework first!”
A medieval mortar, broken while being made 800 years ago and thrown aside, has been gifted to Burngate by landowner Terry Lucas
Gift of a medieval mortar
Local landowners have been very supportive, with one – Terry Lucas – giving Burngate a medieval mortar which was broken during manufacture and thrown away.
They were carved and exported all over the country as far away as Hadrian’s Wall, but this one would just have been tossed aside with a curse!
The Burngate team is also hoping to interest more people in the geology of the area – there are more than a dozen different types of Purbeck stone with names such as Toad’s Eye, Burr, Leper, Bluebit Spangle and Grub, and they all have very different qualities.
Most of Corfe Castle was made from the easily accessible Burr stone, while interior surfaces were made from Purbeck marble, which takes a pleasing shine and is used in most English cathedrals, but which doesn’t fare very well when exposed to the elements.
Purbeck is still being heavily quarried for stone in a major local industry, some of it for road aggregate, some of it for building country homes, but also for restoration work in historic sites like Westminster Cathedral.
Quarrying is never far from sight across the beautiful countryside of Purbeck
Nowhere else like it in the world
Patrick Corbett said:
“A lot of Purbeck stone was quarried in medieval times to build Corfe Castle – there used to be a village at Afflington which thrived during the boom in quarrying and had about 100 people working on the stone point, but is now completely gone.
“It’s a preserved site and a site of special scientific interest, but so few people know anything about it.
“We have also suggested that Sustainable Worth might like to look at the biozones along the trails, as you have bluebells, primroses, heathland, the most wonderful transect across Purbeck.
“I don’t think there is anywhere else in the world where you can walk from a clifftop through a wood, along an ancient valley now used by steam trains, across the heath and end up at a medieval castle in just 11 kilometres!”
The Quarry to Castle trail is waymarked with QR codes along the route for instant information
Need to engage children with geology
Patrick added:
“We are going to use this to promote stone carving weekends and creative writing as well as walking – it will be a fusion of landscape, minescape and wordscape.
“People have lost contact with what is in the ground under their feet – they are lost in their mobile phones, which contain 60 or 70 different minerals which come from the earth and forget that their energy and building materials come from the ground.
“There is more to geology than earthquakes, volcanoes and dinosaurs which children do find exciting.
“We are worried about the next generation of geologists – we need to engage them somehow and I think that this path is one way of doing that.”
David Wise (left) and Patrick Corbett (right) with one of the many carvings at Burngate stone centre
“Discover what we are all about”
David Wise, centre manager at Burngate, said:
“Knowing that Purbeck Art Weeks was coming up, and as we have other events organised, we thought it was a good idea to officially launch the trail at the end of May.
“We are hoping that people will take the opportunity to drop into Burngate and discover what we are all about.
“We have been working with the National Trust for the past couple of years, doing events at Corfe Castle and talking about how Purbeck stone was used to build it, which all went down really well.
“This is a more detailed follow up, we did our homework to find out exactly where the stone came from for Corfe Castle and how it would have been transported there.”
Spectacular Corfe Castle was largely built from local Purbeck stone
QR codes along the trails
Information boards showing the route can be viewed at Burngate, Corfe Castle and Woodyhyde campsite, with QR codes along the waymarked trails to give further information on smartphones.
Sensible clothing and walking shoes or trainers are advised – the paths are uneven with stiles to cross and can be muddy at times, but the terrain is generally not too difficult for average walkers. Visitors can arrive by bus at the Acton Lane bus stop.
Stone carving workshops are always popular at Burngate
Further information
- More details about the walk is on Burngate’s website
