The lost chapel

Lyscombe Chapel hides in an unspoilt and hidden valley, no signpost marks it out, while the only way to reach it is on your plates of meat. 

Dating from the 13th century, it was connected to the monastery of Milton Abbas, possibly as a stopover for wandering monks with the princely rent of twelve fishes being paid to the landowner. Following the Dissolution the chapel and accompanying priest's house became a bakehouse for several hundred years.

More recently it lay abandoned and was doomed to crumble to nothingness until the enlightened landowner breathed life into it once again.

The resulting restoration meant that in 2007 Mass was celebrated here for the first time in 500 years.

Dorset walks Pt.1-Lyme Regis circular walk.

6 miles 3hrs approx OS Explorer 116 Lyme Regis and Bridport
This easy walk can be wrapped in a morning leaving time for the beach in the afternoon.

Start at the excellent Town Mill then follow the Lim first by road then footpath along the old pack horse trail past Middle Mill. The route continues through fields and along footpaths eventually passing Rhode Hill House. This was originally the home of Alban Woodroffe, Lyme's great benefactor.

Further on the view opens up to give you a distant and unexpected view of a viaduct of monumental proportions.

Cannington Viaduct

This is Cannington Viaduct which was built in 1903 to carry the Lyme branch line from Axminster. It was the first viaduct to be built completely from concrete rather than brick. Like its classical Roman predecessors it now stands as a derelict symbol of another age and sold by the railways several years ago for the grand sum of a penny.
The route returns through leafy glades by the Lim.

6 miles 3hrs approx OS Explorer 116 Lyme Regis and Bridport

Find God with Cliff

Just a short stroll from the pretty village of Worth Matravers in the Purbecks is the spectacularly sited Chapel of St Aldhelm. It is well worth a visit in any season clinging as it does to the clifftop high above the boiling surf. The chapel has stood in this exposed position for maybe a thousand years, its true function now lost in antiquity. Very probably it  combined a religious function with that of a beacon for ships. A brazier was most likely situated at the apex of the roof where the Victorians erected a cross. Inside you'll find a plain, vaulted room which springs from a central column still decorated with ancient graffiti.

Neglected and falling into disrepair, it was restored a hundred and fifty years ago. 

In past centuries at Whitsuntide local girls danced in the ribbon bedecked interior and then  dropped pins into the several ancient cavities in the central column to bring themselves luck.

From its  vantage point there are spectacular views either way along the Purbecks,  a view which it shares with the Coastwatch look-out station close by. Worth dropping into if they’re not too busy.

A pleasant Sunday walk of about 5.5miles. Pub at Worth Matravers- The Square and Compass where you can worship the
local beer and then partake of communion

Taken from www.dorsetdorset.co.uk