Dorset Downs
50°51′36″N 2°22′40″W / 50.8600°N 2.3777°W
The Dorset Downs are an area of
chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, Hampshire Downs, Chiltern Hills, North Downs and South Downs.[1]
Physical geography
The Dorset Downs are bounded on the north, along the steep
Bagshot Beds which form the heathlands of the county, between Dorchester and Wareham. South of the River Frome, the chalk reappears in a narrower strip, forming coastal cliffs east of Weymouth and, further east, the steep ridge of the Purbeck Hills. This southerly strip of the visible chalk (sometimes referred to as the South Dorset Downs or South Dorset Ridgeway) continues westwards behind Weymouth, and rejoins the main body of the downs at their western extremity at Eggardon Hill. In the west the chalk dips down under marl
.
Together with Cranborne Chase, the Dorset Downs have been designated as National Character Area 134 by Natural England, the UK Government's advisor on the natural environment. In Dorset this area is bounded by the Dorset Heaths and Weymouth Lowlands to the south, the Marshwood and Powerstock Vales to the west and the Blackmore Vale to the north.[2]
The main land uses on the downs are
reservoir of drinking water for much of the county. This property of chalk also means there are many seasonal rivers, called winterbournes
, that flow depending upon the level of the water table.
Hills
- Bulbarrow Hill (274 m), site of Rawlsbury camp and the highest hill in the Downs.
- Telegraph Hill (267 m)
- Lyscombe Hill (262 m)
- Watts Hill(261 m)
- Bell Hill (258 m)
- South Dorset Downs
- Toller Down (252 m)
- Ball Hill (251 m)
- Dogbury Hill (248 m)
- Beaminster Down (244 m)
- Shillingstone Hill(223 m), a densely wooded scarp face with a large quarry.
- Rampisham Down (219 m)
- Hambledon Hill (192 m) and Hod Hill (143 m), two outliers of Cranborne Chase, separated from the Downs by the River Stour.
Fauna
The downs are the native home to the Dorset Down sheep.
Places of interest
- Blandford Forest
- Cerne valley, including Cerne Abbas Giant.
- Dorsetshire Gap, a steep valley.
- Milton Abbas, 18th-century planned estate village and museum.
- Minterne Magna, Rhododendron garden at Minterne House.
- Nettlecombe Touthill fort.
- Ringmoor settlement and field system.
See also
- Bowerchalke - geological profile of a Lower Greensand inlier on the chalklands of Cranborne Chase
References
- ^ Uplift, Erosion and Stability: Perspectives on Long-term Landscape Development ed. by Smith, Bernard J., Whalley Wilfred B. and Warke Patricia A. (1999), Geological Society Special Publication No. 162, Bath. Accessed on 3 Apr 2013.
- ^ Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase at www.naturalengland.org.uk. Accessed on 3 Apr 2013.