chain ferry to Studland as well as the Manor House Hotel and many others. While your there its worth popping in the Bankes Arms for some real ale and some great freshly cooked food, seafood being a specialty of thiers. There's nothing better on a hot summers day than relaxing with with a pint of real ale in there beer garden enjoying the fantastic views across Studland and the Solent. And don't forget there Annual Beer Festival which is normally held on August bank holiday. Live music, hog roast and more beer than you've ever seen, that's one not to be missed. Studland with its tiny centre mostly Edwardian, but with older cottages particularly around the church, and an extraordinary Marine Villa (now Manor House Hotel) built in 1825 with later 19th century alterations. The village is full of trees and hedges and all fits happily together. Much of the area, including the heath, now belongs to the National Trust. The long sandy beach is full of shells (hence Shell Bay) and runs right round the bay and on for 2.5 miles to South Haven Point where a chain ferry runs across to Sandbanks. The road through is private, and a toll is charged

Most of the promontory is a National Nature Reserve with a car park by the beach just north of Studland village with the recent addition of Godlingston Heath to the west into the Reserve there are 1500 acres. The promontory has grown seawards over the last 400 years, with sand-dunes now enclosing the Little Sea, once part of the main ocean, but now a land-locked lake. The reserve has heartland woodland and sand dunes with nature trails laid out on the hummocky dunes and in the wood. Studland and Godlingston Heath are good walking areas, but the notices at the entrances to the reserve should be read and their instructions followed Godlingstone Heath is less sandy, and carries traditional heath vegetation in the middle of the eastern part is the Agglestone, a vast lump of sandstone (estimated as 500 tons). In the Arctic February of 1986 the dry heath caught fire and a huge swathe right round the Agglestone and up to 1.5 miles beyond burnt, destroying all the vegetation. A furze bush and part of a holly were all that survived on the Agglestone's knoll. Good views from the beach towards of the chalk stacks of Old Harry Rocks on the south, and east to Bournemouth. The Isle of Wight can usually be seen, and another viewpoint one-third of the way to Corfe Castle from Studland on the B3351 has a small car-park which gives a most marvelous view out across the heath and conifer plantations (concealing oil wells) to Poole Harbour, up west to Wareham, including Brownsea Island. On the east are Studland and Sandbanks at the entrance to Poole Harbour, and beyond the coastline to Bournemouth, Hengistbury and even further if its clear.

Getting There

Studland is reached by the B3531 from Corfe Castle, or it is walkable from Swanage or from Poole via the Sandbanks ferry. There are three car parks, some free, with spaces for the disabled. Access to the beach is from the southern car park through the woods, from the middle car park via a steep hill, or from the northern car park, which is flat and suitable for the disabled.

The nearest train stations are Poole and Bournemouth. The Swanage Railway runs from Corfe Castle to Swanage. Buses go to Studland from Poole, Bournemouth and Swanage