Durdle Door
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Durdle Door (sometimes written Durdle Dor<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England.<ref name="west">West, I.W., 2003. "Durdle Door; Geology of the Dorset Coast Template:Webarchive". Southampton University, UK. Version H.07.09.03.</ref> It is privately owned by the Weld family, who own the Lulworth Estate,<ref name=telegraph>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but it is also open to the public.
Geology
The form of the coastline around Durdle Door is controlled by its geology—both by the contrasting hardnesses of the rocks, and by the local patterns of faults and folds.<ref name="Nowell">Nowell, D. A. G. "The geology of Lulworth Cove, Dorset." Geology Today 14 (1998): 71–74.</ref> The arch has formed on a concordant coastline where bands of rock run parallel to the shoreline. The rock strata are almost vertical, and the bands of rock are quite narrow. Originally a band of resistant Portland limestone ran along the shore, the same band that appears one mile along the coast forming the narrow entrance to Lulworth Cove.<ref name="ParkGeology">Template:Cite web</ref> Behind this is a Template:Convert band of weaker, easily eroded rocks, and behind this is a stronger and much thicker band of chalk, which forms the Purbeck Hills.<ref name="Nowell" /> These steeply dipping rocks are part of the Lulworth crumple, itself part of the broader Purbeck Monocline, produced by the building of the Alps during the mid-Cenozoic.<ref name="Nowell" /><ref name="Phillips" />
The limestone and chalk are in closer proximity at Durdle Door than at Swanage, Template:Convert to the east, where the distance is over Template:Convert.<ref>Arkell, W. J., 1947. The geology of the country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe, and Lulworth. Mem. geol. Surv. UK</ref> Around this part of the coast, nearly all of the limestone has been removed by sea erosion, whilst the remainder forms the small headland which includes the arch. Erosion at the western end of the limestone band has resulted in the arch formation.<ref name="Nowell" /> UNESCO teams monitor the condition of both the arch and adjacent beach.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Template:Convert isthmus that joins the limestone to the chalk is made of a Template:Convert band of Portland limestone, a narrow and compressed band of Cretaceous Wealden clays and sands, and then narrow bands of greensand and sandstone.<ref name="Phillips">Template:Cite journal</ref>
In Man O' War Bay, the small bay immediately east of Durdle Door, the band of Portland and Purbeck limestone has not been entirely eroded and is visible above the waves as Man O'War Rocks.<ref name=west2>Template:Cite web</ref> Similarly, offshore to the west, the eroded limestone outcrop forms a line of small rocky islets called (from east to west) The Bull, The Blind Cow, The Cow, and The Calf.<ref name=west2 />
As the coastline in this area is generally an eroding landscape, the cliffs are subject to occasional rockfalls and landslides; a particularly large slide occurred just to the east of Durdle Door in April 2013, destroying a part of the South West Coast Path.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Etymology
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There is a dearth of early written records about the arch,<ref name=dorsetpage>Template:Cite web</ref> though it has kept a name given to it probably over a thousand years ago.<ref name=west2 /> In the late 18th century there is a description of the "magnificent arch of Durdle-rock Door",<ref name=west2 /> and early 19th-century maps called it "Duddledoor" and "Durdle" or "Dudde Door". In 1811 the first Ordnance Survey map of the area named it "Dirdale Door".<ref name=dorsetpage /> Durdle is derived from the Old English Template:Lang, meaning to pierce,<ref name=west2 /> bore or drill,<ref name=heritage>Template:Cite web</ref> which in turn derives from Template:Lang, meaning hole.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Similar names in the region include Durlston Bay and Durlston Head further east, where a coastal stack suggests the existence of an earlier arch, and the Thurlestone, an arched rock in the neighbouring county of Devon to the west.<ref name=west2 /> The Door part of the name probably maintains its modern meaning, referring to the arched shape of the rock;<ref name=dorsetpage /> in the late 19th century there is a reference to it being called the "Barn-door", and it is described as being "sufficiently high for a good-sized sailing boat to pass through it."<ref name=west2 />
In literature and popular culture
Music videos have been filmed at Durdle Door, including parts of Tears for Fears' "Shout", Billy Ocean's "Loverboy", Cliff Richard's "Saviour's Day"<ref name=heritage /> and Bruce Dickinson's "Tears of the Dragon".
The landscape around Durdle Door has been used in scenes in several films, including Wilde (1997) starring Stephen Fry,<ref name=telegraph /><ref name=heritage /> Nanny McPhee<ref name=telegraph /> starring Emma Thompson, the 1967 production of Far From The Madding Crowd<ref name=heritage /> (the latter also filmed around nearby Scratchy Bottom),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Bollywood film Housefull 3.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, Durdle Door was where the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) regenerated into the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant), in the Doctor Who episode "The Power of the Doctor".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ron Dawson's children's story Scary Bones meets the Dinosaurs of the Jurassic Coast creates a myth of how Durdle Door came to be, as an 'undiscovered' dinosaur called Durdle Doorus is magically transformed into rock.<ref name="Dawson Amazon.co.uk">Template:Cite book</ref>
Dorset-born Arthur Moule, a friend of Thomas Hardy and missionary to China wrote these lines about Durdle Door for his 1879 book of poetry Songs of Heaven and home, written in a foreign Land:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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See also
- Durdle Pier, Isle of Portland
- Geology of Dorset
- Stair Hole
- Swyre Head, Chaldon Down and Bat's Head, to the west
- List of Dorset beaches
References
Further reading
- Arkell, W.J., 1978. The Geology of the Country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe and Lulworth, 4th pr.. London: Geological Survey of Great Britain, HMSO.
- Davies, G.M., 1956. A Geological Guide to the Dorset Coast, 2nd ed.. London: Adam & Charles Black.
- Perkins, J.W., 1977. Geology Explained in Dorset. London: David & Charles.
