Durlston Castle

Having lived in the area all my life i can honestly say i've never tired of the surroundings at Durlston Castle. Although not having any particularly special feature, the place as a whole is definitely worth a visit and is a really enjoyable day out. The Castle itself is currently closed, but only temporarily whilst it's refurbished, and was a lovely place to stop for a meal or drink beforehand, so i can imagine it will be definitely worth a visit when it reopens. There isn't a lot of history to the castle, but shows a lot of Victorian features, including the Globe which shows how the countries once were, as well as astronomical features surrounding it. The ...  Read the complete review

Durlston castle stands on a headland above Swanage, in Dorset. If you are thinking proper castle with keep, walls, dungeon etc, think again. This is an amazingly foolish folly - I don't think anyone could realistically live in it, and it doesn't have much history. However, it does have a fair few other things going for it. If you arrive by car, you have to pay to park - last summer it was four pounds for the day, expect this to go up. After that you don't actually have to pay for anything. You can have a look at the castle, and the various attractions in its area of park for free. The Castle: Largely consists of a restaurant, a pub, and a ...  Read the complete review

The week before Easter in our local newspaper, the Bournemouth Advertiser, a featured advertisement captured our imaginations in an instant. The advert was for Durlston Castle and that there had been record sightings this month of dolphins, sometimes up to nine and including a new baby! Dolphins, of all things! I did not know that there were dolphins off the Dorset coast! And the first thing that entered my mind was 'Oh yeah - record sightings. A record maybe 'cos there was now one sighting and previously there had never been anyway at all!' Nevertheless, in spite of our scepticism, on Easter Sunday we drove out to Durlston Castle to see ...  Read the complete review