Dorset Downs
The Dorset Downs are an area of chalk downland in the centre of Dorset. The downs are the most western part of a larger chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, the Hampshire Downs, the Chiltern Hills, the North Downs and the South Downs.[1]
Physical geography
The Dorset Downs are bounded on the north, along the steep scarp face, by the Blackmore Vale, a large clay and limestone valley. On the east, the Downs were once, thousands of years ago, continuous with Cranborne Chase, but the River Stour now cuts a valley between them, which is the location of Blandford Forum and the eastern boundary of the downs. From the northern scarp face, the hills dip gently southwards before the chalk disappears beneath the 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 adviser 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 arable agriculture, woodland and calcareous grassland, a habitat which is growing as farmers are encouraged to set land aside with subsidies. Chalk is a rough rock and the Dorset Downs hold a large water table which acts as a reservoir (water)|reservoir of drinking water for much of the county. This property of chalk also means there are many seasonal rivers, called winterbournes, which flow depending upon the level of the water table.
Hills
Hills in the Dorset Downs include:
- Bulbarrow Hill (899 feet), site of Rawlsbury camp and the highest hill in the Downs.
- Telegraph Hill (876 feet)
- Lyscombe Hill (860 feet)
- Watts Hill (856 feet)
- Bell Hill (846 feet)
- Eggardon Hill (827 feet), also the western extremity of the South Dorset Downs
- Toller Down (827 feet)
- Ball Hill (823 feet)
- Dogbury Hill (814 feet)
- Beaminster Down (801 feet)
- Shillingstone Hill (732 feet), a densely wooded scarp face with a large quarry.
- Rampisham Down (719 feet)
- Two outliers of Cranborne Chase, separated from the Downs by the River Stour:
- Hambledon Hill (630 feet), carved into a massive hill fort
- Hod Hill (469 feet)
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 Tout hill fort.
- Ringmoor settlement and field system.
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 – Natural England