After hiking the South West Coast Path from Swanage and a lovely night spent in the adorable village of Worth Matravers, we set out on foot to Corfe Castle on a grey September Sunday morning. Originally, we were thinking we’d need to walk along the road to get from Worth Matravers to Corfe, but we quickly came upon the beautiful Purbeck Way.
I am so glad we did! This path is lovely, winding in and out of different fields, through thickets with beautiful views along the way. This path follows rolling hills down to Corfe, where a castle sits upon a larger hill. From a distance, it is quite the sight to behold.
Our walk was pretty eventful. We saw cows, we saw alpacas, we saw giant slugs.
We crossed bridges and jumped over muddy patches.
Seeing the castle at various points along the trail made us even more excited to reach our destination and explore the castle grounds.
After about five miles, we arrived in the charming town of Corfe. Wide streets and stone buildings greeted us as we made our way up to the castle.
Corfe Castle was stunning in its dilapidatedness.
It is left in ruins, which have shifted into all sorts of precarious-looking positions over time. A lot of it is still on the site, but not in the way other castles we’ve visited remain.
The chaotic crumbling pieces had a beauty to them. I enjoyed observing how all the different pieces had fallen.
The highlight of this day was definitely hiking up a neighbouring hill to take in the dramatic castle view.
The hill was steep but so worth it.
After we had our fill of the castle, we headed to the Greyhound Inn to fill our bellies! The Greyhound Inn has an enormous gluten-free menu so I was spoilt for choice!
I ended up getting a meaty pizza, because gluten-free pizza! It was delicious. Andrew went for a more traditional choice, opting for a Sunday roast.
From the Greyhound, it was back on the Purbeck Breezer to the train station to catch the train back to London. This was one of my very favourite weekends we’ve had so far in the UK and our Sunday in Corfe was the perfect end to it. You can read about our hike from Swanage along the South West Coast path here and about our night’s stay in adorable Worth Matravers here.
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Jenn is an American expat living in London, spending her time freelancing, traveling and writing on this here blog. Thank you for reading. Are you planning a trip here? Tell me your plans in the comments!
Looks like a fun day! 💕