15.9km along the coast and 14km return and inland
Part of section 66 of the South West Coastal Path guide
Another sunny April day and we found that there was a path directly from our Lodge that lead to an inland footpath leading back to the Ringstead National Trust carpark, where we parked yesterday. So walked the 4km back to the car park and down to meet the official Coastal path, just by a charming chapel.
From here it was an easy walk, amongst the flowering blackthorn, to Ringstead Bay. Slightly unfriendly with many “Private – Keep Out” signs from beachside caravan parks until we reached the Kiosk, completely the opposite where we had a friendly reception and bought a couple of Marshfield Farms Ice creams – the first since September last year.
From here an easy walk back to Osmington Mills and very close to our Lodge. Continuing West we walked past the campsite where we had stayed with our young family the night that Princess Diana had died and then on towards Weymouth.
After passing a rather interesting PGL children’s adventure compound, that is no doubt struggling due to the Pandemic restrictions and then on to Bowlease Cove and the Art Deco “Riveria Hotel” – no doubt a masterpiece in its time but clearly had seen better days.
A rather long concrete path leads the elegant Weymouth terraces in good condition and a clock tower to celebrate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. We continued along the seafront to the Harbour where there is rowing ferry – but that is for another day.
Halfway along the seafront there used to be a pier, known as the pier bandstand, however most of it has now been demolished and only the entrance remains. There are a few pictures and links in the Pier Project section of my website.
Reflecting that the last time that we had visited Weymouth together was in the London Olympic year of 12012 when we had watch Ben Ainslie win the sailing and then watched on a big-screen in a pub Andy Murray win Gold for Tennis, before returning home on the train.
Having followed the official Coast Path, we took the shorter route across the beach back to Bowlease and then a slightly different route to Osmington village to get back to the Lodge.
