Durdle Door (sometimes written Durdle Dor) is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England. It is privately owned by the Weld family, who own the Lulworth Estate, but it is also open to the public.

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 band of weaker, easily eroded rocks, and behind this is a stronger and much thicker band of chalk, which forms the Purbeck Hills.

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.

The isthmus that joins the limestone to the chalk is made of a 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 Cove, 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.

Etymology

thumb|People on the beach show the scale of the arch. The [[Isle of Portland can be seen on the horizon.]]

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 , 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 Bollywood film Housefull 3, drama film Steve. In the science fiction adventure film Project Hail Mary Durdle Door is seen as Ryland Grace's home on the alien planet Erid. 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..

Literature

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:

See also

  • Durdle Pier, Isle of Portland
  • Geology of Dorset
  • Stair Hole
  • Swyre Head, Chaldon Down and Bat's Head, to the west
  • List of Dorset beaches

References

Further reading

  • Arkell, W.J., 1978. The Geology of the Country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe and Lulworth, 4th pr.. London: Geological Survey of Great Britain, HMSO.
  • Davies, G.M., 1956. A Geological Guide to the Dorset Coast, 2nd ed.. London: Adam & Charles Black.
  • Perkins, J.W., 1977. Geology Explained in Dorset. London: David & Charles.
  • "Caves, Arches & Stacks" Southwest Coastal Group
  • "Durdle Door: Past and Future" animation
  • Section of Lulworth Crumple, labelled diagram by Ian West (2013)
  • Durdle Door Educational Activity Sheet for Kids at EasyScienceforKids.