Spyway

Spyway is the National Trust's gateway to the South Purbeck coast above Langton Matravers, a limestone landscape of clifftop grassland criss-crossed by dry stone walls, where centuries of quarrying left sea quarries such as Dancing Ledge, now used for picnics and coasteering, and the South West Coast Path looks along the Jurassic Coast as far as Portland. Just off the Priest's Way, more than 100 fossilised tracks found during quarrying in 1997 record brachiosaurs that gathered at a watering hole 145 million years ago, and the field west of Dancing Ledge is the best place in Britain for the early spider orchid, with puffins nesting on the cliffs below. The Trust's Spyway sea saunter is a flat 1.5-mile loop from the car park with a detour to Dancing Ledge, and the South Purbeck cliffs walk a six-mile circuit; dogs on leads and under close control are welcome all year. Reviewers rate the dinosaur footprints as the highlight. Tips from visitors: the track to the car park is badly potholed, the footprints are a short walk on gravel paths from the car park, and the descent to Dancing Ledge is steep, with no mobile signal on the coast.