Poole Harbour

Poole Harbour was some centuries ago a hive of activity for harvesting various bi-valves and Shell Bay is literally round the corner. You walk along Shell Bay, round the point on to what is the main Studland beach supporting most of the visitors. This section also supports the Naturist Beach including the dunes behind. Moving south you are on to Knoll Beach where the National Trust have a tourist centre for refreshment and mementos of your visit, and then on to Middle Beach.

Further south you reach the Redend Point promontory which acts, during high tides as a cut-off to the South Beach. That section then runs into the lee of Ballard Down.

From Ferry to Ballard is roughly 3 miles, South Beach, south of Redend Point is less popular because it gets cut off but is then still accessible from Studland village. It is not backed by dunes but by higher ground which is a mix of clays and sands and over the years gradually gets washed down to beach level. If you want a quieter time though, it is the place to be. There are a number of beach huts backing that section of beach.

Having talked about all this sand, it must not be forgotten, for many people do, that whilst walking the sand you are traversing over an oil field up to nearly a mile below your feet which extends nearly to Bournemouth. This oil is extracted at the Wytch Farm site hidden away at the south of Poole Harbour. Contrary to popular belief it is not a dammed great underground 'lake' of oil, but held in the space between the grains of sand where oil extracted is replaced with water.

In terms of traffic and parking, if you come from the ferry in the north you immediately have the Shell Bay car park at the side of the ferry toll booth. From there the road is virtually straight and level for almost a mile and reaches saturation in terms of parking at the side during the season. This is just a hard standing and since you could be stepping out of your vehicle straight on to the road it is potentially hazardous, especially from drivers, having been stuck at the toll booth waiting to pay are keen to make up time by amazing turns of speed for that section of road. As an aside, at speed the not so obvious undulations of the road can create permanent damage to exhaust systems, not by impact but by stress on mountings.

Something that has been considered a problem by many, is the overnight parking of caravans on and around Ferry Road. The police and Purbeck District Council, working as part of the Studland Beach Users Action Group, recently (June 2005) prevented caravans parking overnight by issuing notices under Section 77 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
A further mile takes you to the Knoll Beach car park, where during the season you are liable to hit a traffic jam courtesy of traffic entering the car park. This occurs during the morning, and the later afternoon of course finds everybody pouring out.

You should err on the side of caution as you move out into the bay since there are still some strong currents courtesy of the narrow entrance to Poole Harbour. It is quite an education to spend some time actually at the entrance and observe how much and how fast the water comes and goes.