What better way to enjoy the summer than to go for a walk and a wild swim?
When you’re getting hot, it’s the perfect way to cool off, and it’s also a beautiful, immersive way to experience the great outdoors.
Here, Sophie Pierce and Matt Newbury, authors of Wild Swimming Walks Dorset and East Devon, share their favourite walks with a dip.
You can find full details of the walks, including directions and maps, in their book here.
Table of Contents
Studland Circular
This walk includes the endless sandy beach at Studland, but it also takes you to the much lesser-known but equally magical shores of Poole Harbour.
You need to start the walk about two hours before high tide from the Knoll Beach car park.
The route takes you through some rugged heathland, bright with yellow gorse and purple heather in the summer, to the now-abandoned Redhorn Quay.
This is a wonderfully atmospheric place, with a shipwreck by the shore, which makes a beautiful swim at high tide.
The walk then continues clockwise around Studland, passing numerous beaches for more swims, including Shell Bay, where you get great views of the ships coming in and out of Poole Harbour.
Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door
The walk starts with a swim at impossibly beautiful Lulworth Cove, where the white pebbly beach against the clear blue waters gives it a real Mediterranean feel.
The walk then heads up Hambury Tout before crossing over the fields of The Warren back to the coast with breathtaking views across to the Isle of Portland.
You then follow a rollercoaster of a path before dropping down to the iconic Durdle Door.
Here our top tip is to walk to the end of the beach and swim through Bat’s Hole, where you can access a deserted beach with the apt name of Lone Beach.
Throop Loop
What we love about this walk is how close it is to Bournemouth, but you feel a million miles away from the urban sprawl.
Most of the route is through the 35-hectare Stour Valley Nature Reserve, following the beautiful River Stour, with some gorgeous and varied swim spots along the way.
The first is from a sandy beach, and the second is from the curved trunk of a remarkable willow tree.
Along the route, we passed historic farms, alpacas, a pumpkin patch, a Georgian manor house, a golf course and even an Alice in Wonderland theme park before discovering another huge, lake-like swim spot in a lazy bend in the river.
Isle of Portland Circular
Portland is both spectacular and fascinating, with some remarkable swim spots along the way. The isle is joined to the mainland by Chesil Beach, an iconic strip of shingle beach which gets you into the mood for adventures from the off.
The walk starts near the iconic lighthouse at Portland Bill, where a first swim can be enjoyed from an area known as Red Pool, where the remains of quarrying activity have left a series of ledges you can swim and jump from (having checked the depth-first, obviously).
The walk then follows the coast path along to Church Ope Cove, where the bleached pebbles against the turquoise waters make for a magical dip.
Sturminster Newton Circular
This is a lovely walk through pastoral Hardy Country, with a swim in the lush River Stour.
It starts and ends in the historic town of Sturminster Newton. The route takes you out to pretty Colber Bridge, where there is a beautiful stretch of the river to swim.
It then continues via Fiddleford Manor where there is an ancient mill pond, back to Sturminster Newton.
Golden Cap and Seatown Circular
This walk starts in beautiful woods above the coast, where there are bluebells in the spring and foxgloves in the summer.
The route then takes you up to the highest point on England’s South coast, Golden Cap, with its spectacular views, before descending to the pretty seaside village of Seatown for a swim.
An extra bonus here is the wood-fired sauna, which is stationed on the beach all year round.
For more information on these stunning walks, including directions and maps, check out their book here.
