Durlston Country Park

Beautiful country park run by Dorset County Council, in a spectacular cliff top location, with views to the Isle of Wight. There is parking (reduced rates for Friends), loos, and a Visitor Centre, serving tea/​coffee, with a wider range from Acorns Café adjoining the Centre. A rugged battery mobility cart is available. (The castle is being renovated until 2011, to create a Jurassic Coast Visitor Centre, and so the proper café — The Lookout — is also closed for now). The park is staffed by rangers, who post details of the wildlife to be seen each day in the Visitor Centre. There is a dolphin watch hut on the cliff top — look inside to see sightings on the blackboard (peak month is May). No chemicals are used, so the meadows and clifftops are chock full of wildflowers, including many varieties of wild orchid. There are many resident and visiting birds, and a TV in the Visitors Centre shows live pictures of the nesting seabirds on the cliffs. There is a hide, and observatory. Wonderful walks, including past the lighthouse (open many Sundays in summer).