Durdle Door

Geology

The form of the coastline around Durdle Door is controlled by its geology—both by the contrasting hardnesses of the rocks, and by the local patterns of faults and folds. The arch has formed on a concordant coastline where bands of rock run parallel to the shoreline. The rock strata are almost vertical, and the bands of rock are quite narrow. Originally a band of resistant Portland limestone ran along the shore, the same band that appears one mile along the coast forming the narrow entrance to Lulworth Cove. Behind this is a 120 m band of weaker, easily eroded rocks, and behind this is a stronger and much thicker band of chalk, which forms the Purbeck Hills. These steeply dipping rocks are part of the Lulworth crumple, itself part of the broader Purbeck Monocline, produced by the building of the Alps during the mid-Cenozoic.

The limestone and chalk are in closer proximity at Durdle Door than at Swanage, 10 mi to the east, where the distance is over 2 mi. Around this part of the coast, nearly all of the limestone has been removed by sea erosion, whilst the remainder forms the small headland which includes the arch. Erosion at the western end of the limestone band has resulted in the arch formation. UNESCO teams monitor the condition of both the arch and adjacent beach.

The 120 m isthmus that joins the limestone to the chalk is made of a 50 m band of Portland limestone, a narrow and compressed band of Cretaceous Wealden clays and sands, and then narrow bands of greensand and sandstone.

In Man O' War Bay, the small bay immediately east of Durdle Door, the band of Portland and Purbeck limestone has not been entirely eroded and is visible above the waves as Man O'War Rocks. Similarly, offshore to the west, the eroded limestone outcrop forms a line of small rocky islets called (from east to west) The Bull, The Blind Cow, The Cow, and The Calf.

As the coastline in this area is generally an eroding landscape, the cliffs are subject to occasional rockfalls and landslides; a particularly large slide occurred just to the east of Durdle Door in April 2013, destroying a part of the South West Coast Path.

Etymology

There is a dearth of early written records about the arch, though it has kept a name given to it probably over a thousand years ago. which in turn derives from thyrel, meaning hole. Similar names in the region include Durlston Bay and Durlston Head further east, where a coastal stack suggests the existence of an earlier arch, and the Thurlestone, an arched rock in the neighbouring county of Devon to the west. The Door part of the name probably maintains its modern meaning, referring to the arched shape of the rock; in the late 19th century there is a reference to it being called the "Barn-door", and it is described as being "sufficiently high for a good-sized sailing boat to pass through it."

In literature and popular culture

Music videos have been filmed at Durdle Door, including parts of Tears for Fears' "Shout", Billy Ocean's "Loverboy", Cliff Richard's "Saviour's Day" and Bruce Dickinson's "Tears of the Dragon".

The landscape around Durdle Door has been used in scenes in several films, including Wilde (1997) starring Stephen Fry, and the Bollywood film Housefull 3. In 2022, Durdle Door was where the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) regenerated into the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant), in the Doctor Who episode "The Power of the Doctor". Ron Dawson's children's story Scary Bones meets the Dinosaurs of the Jurassic Coast creates a myth of how Durdle Door came to be, as an 'undiscovered' dinosaur called Durdle Doorus is magically transformed into rock.

Dorset-born Arthur Moule, a friend of Thomas Hardy and missionary to China wrote these lines about Durdle Door for his 1879 book of poetry Songs of Heaven and home, written in a foreign Land:

References

References

1. Crane, Nicholas. (2010). "Coast: Our Island Story: A Journey of Discovery Around Britain's Coastline". BBC Books.
2. West, I.W., 2003. "[http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/durdle.htm Durdle Door; Geology of the Dorset Coast] {{Webarchive. link. (7 March 2012 ". [[Southampton University]], UK. Version H.07.09.03.)
3. Aislinn Simpson. (13 August 2009). "UAE hotel draws condemnation over use of Durdle Door image on website". The Daily Telegraph.
4. "The Purbeck Gazette".
5. Nowell, D. A. G. "The geology of Lulworth Cove, Dorset." Geology Today 14 (1998): 71–74.
6. "Lulworth Cove & Crumple – a geography pilgrimage". jurassiccoast.org.
7. Arkell, W. J., 1947. The geology of the country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe, and Lulworth. Mem. geol. Surv. UK
8. "Monitoring the coast". jurassiccoast.org.
9. Phillips, W. J.. (1964). "The structures in the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks on the Dorset coast between White Nothe and Mupe Bay". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association.
10. Ian West. "Durdle Door, West of Lulworth Cove, Dorset. Geology of the Wessex Coast of Southern England".
11. (30 April 2013). "Dorset coast path collapse: 'Massive' cliff fall near Durdle Door". [[BBC News]].
12. (2000). "Locations: Durdle Door". the dorsetpage.com.
13. "Durdle Door". worldheritagecoast.net.
14. (1985). "Collins English Dictionary". William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.
15. "Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) — Filming locations".
16. "IDWLF on Twitter".
17. Taylor, Mike. (23 October 2022). "Doctor Who: Jodie Whittaker regenerates on Durdle Door in shock ending". Dorset Live.
18. "Book Description on Amazon.co.uk".
19. (1879). "Songs of Heaven and Home, Written in a Foreign Land".