LEGACY TRAIL - Visit Dorset

Enter Tout Quarry (leased by Dorset Wildlife
Trust) through Lano’s 1850’s tunnel.
The path, a hot spot for chalkhill blue butterflies,
passes another island of unquarried rock. The
grayling butterfly may be seen sunning on bare
ground, its wings closed for camouflage. In Tout
Quarry there are over 50 sculptures carved into the
landscape to discover. There are interpretation
panels with a map to help. Stop off at ‘Still Falling’,
(Antony Gormley) -marked on the map. Take a
short detour to see it.
Follow the old railway line turning left into the
quarry at the interpretation panels. Go past the
sculpture workshop.
For more information about stone sculpture
courses see www.learningstone.org.
Follow the track round. You can explore the
quarry or continue up the main track to the open
air workshop at the top with many sculptures and
a panoramic view point. To continue on the
circular walk turn right through Lanos Arch (1854),
an impressive dry stone arch, out to the Coast
Path.
This is one of several parallel, stone-walled gullies
leading to the Coast Path and fabulous views.
These gullies allowed two-way traffic. Stone was
carried along the cliff edge by a horse-drawn
tramway to Priory corner. There it joined the
Merchants’ railway down to Castletown. Waste
stone and overburden was tipped over on to the
weares. The remains of the tipping bridges can still
be seen. Tout means ‘Lookout’. Take time to enjoy
the fantastic views from here of Lyme Bay and
Chesil.
At the end of the gully turn right and follow the
Coast Path to the sculpture and restored crane.
Cross the road and turn left at the top. Continue
along the road/footpath that crosses Old Hill
through the Verne Local Nature Reserve, the route
of the Merchant’s Railway line. At the road turn
right, cross the Verne Yeates Incline bridge and
rejoin the Legacy Trail, on the right, back up to
New Ground.
.
If you have enjoyed this
walk why not try one of
the other circular walks at
different places along the
Legacy Trail. There are
nine in total.
The Legacy Trail and circular walks from key
'waypoints' are part of the Wild About Weymouth
and Portland Project funded by the Big Lottery
Fund through Natural England's Access to
Nature programme. It aims to improve access in
and between wildlife sites and encourage local
people and visitors to discover and explore the
wonderful natural environment of Weymouth and
Portland.
For more information about the Legacy Trail and
sites along the way visit:
www.visit-dorset.com/about-the-area/countryside
/weymouth-and-portland-legacy-trail
Discover the Wild side
LEGACY TRAIL
Circular walk
Around Portland Quarries
2 miles

Start
Below, the Portland limestone (150 million years) was
created in a shallow, tropical sea where giant
ammonites swam. The top layer, ‘Roach Stone’, is full
of fossils, moulds and casts of marine molluscs;
bivalves known as ‘osses eads’, looking like horse
heads, and turreted coiled snails called ‘Portland
screws’. King Barrow has lots of them. Below, Base
and Whit Beds, formed in deeper waters are the
easily-cut and sculptured limestone, famous across
the world and removed in large quantities from King
Barrow Quarries.
Still falling is carved on the island of
unquarried rock to your left. Follow
the path around to the back face.
Follow the Legacy Trail from New Ground Car Park
into King Barrow Quarries, a Dorset Wildlife Trust
Reserve, last quarried over 100 years ago.
Look out for clues of past quarrying. There are
‘beaches’ of quarry waste behind huge, dry stone
walls stacked by quarrymen and old horse -drawn
tramway routes used by wagons to transport stone.
In spring and summer, the quarries are ablaze with
colour with wildflowers like pink wild thyme,
pyramidal Orchids, yellow lady’s bedstraw and
vetches and vipers bugloss with its vivid blue flower
spikes.
Length of walk: c 2 miles
Access: Free parking at New
Ground Car Park. Nearest bus
stop is at the Heights Hotel. It
is a steep, uneven path into
quarry but the remaining
route is gently undulating
with a largely natural and at
times rocky path surface. A
Tramper mobility scooter is
available for use on some of
this walk from the Heights
Hotel.
As the path narrows, the Legacy Trail turns right to
go through the quarrymen’s tunnel.
Take time to look straight ahead to the outcrop of
unquarried rock. Take care there are steep drops. The
top beds of Lower Purbeck (145 million years old)
were formed in shallow, water lagoons surrounding
low, forested islands; a thick layer of hard cap can be
seen above a fossil soil. On the ledge is a fossil tree
bole. Algae grew around the bases of trees, building
up the doughnut shapes. Holes in rock around the
quarry are not drill holes but cavities left by ancient
tree branches. Dinosaurs roamed at this time too.
We know because they have left there footprints on
Portland!
Turn right to follow the Legacy Trail into ‘Jurassic
Gully’ (left goes to the Verne Local Nature Reserve
via an old horse drawn tramway route).
This is a quiet, sheltered gully with hart’s-tongue fern
and the unusual ivy broomrape, a parasite of Ivy.
Look out for a quarrymen’s shelter in the retaining
wall. Leave the shade and come out onto shorter
grassland with abundant wildflowers and a good
butterfly spot. Look out for marbled white in longer
grass and delicate blue butterflies on shorter turf and
open rocky areas, including chalkhill, small and
common blue and Portland’s special silver-studded
blue. In late summer, the migrant clouded yellow
butterfly may be seen.
Keep straight ahead until you see another footpath
track coming in from the right. Turn right here
leaving the Legacy Trail which goes to the left.
Alternatively, you could go straight to see Admiralty,
a modern quarry with a spectacular section through
the rock strata, before returning to the route.
The non-native and highly invasive cotoneaster shrub
is being removed. The ‘beaches’ are used by slow
worms, common lizards and for nesting, by little owls.
Follow the track straight on and out of the quarry,
via a shady path to Easton Road. Turn right and
then cross the road to follow the footpath sign into
Inmosthay Quarry. This is an old horse drawn
tramway route.