Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England.
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-metre (390 ft) 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. Read more (Wikipedia)
It is privately owned land owned by the Weld family, who own the Lulworth Estate, but it is also open to the public.
It is something I have wanted to capture for many years, the problem has been my mobility, but I decided to do it before it was too late. I did struggle both up and down those steps to and from the beech and it took a few days to get over it, but it was worth it.
December 2025
Taken on previous visits
Paul W. Baker Photography 