Gad Cliff is a south-facing cliff face, immediately to the east of

Worbarrow Tout Worbarrow Tout is a promontory at the eastern end of Worbarrow Bay on Isle of Purbeck in Dorset on the south coast of England, about south of Wareham and about west of Swanage. Immediately to its east is Pondfield Cove. Worbarrow Tout ("tou ...

and Pondfield Cove, on the south coast of the

Isle of Purbeck The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the no ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Behind it is Gold Down, part of the

Lulworth Ranges The Lulworth Ranges are military firing ranges located between Wareham and Lulworth in Dorset, England. They cover an area of more than , are leased in a rolling contract from the Weld Estate by the Ministry of Defence and are part of the Armoure ...

Location

Gad Cliff is located about south of the

ghost village Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

Tyneham Tyneham is a ghost village abandoned in 1943 and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in south Dorset, England, near Lulworth on the Isle of Purbeck. In 2001 the civil parish had a population of 0. The civil ...

and about six kilometres south of Wareham. Gad Cliff is about west of

Kimmeridge Bay Kimmeridge Bay () is a bay on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England, close to and southeast of the village of Kimmeridge, on the Smedmore Estate. The area is renowned for its fossils, with The Etches ...

and about due west of

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...

. Gad Cliff is only accessible when the

are open to the public. It can be reached either by an up hill walk from the car park alongside the

, or alternatively via coastal walk from Kimmeridge Bay along the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...

. The highest point of Gad Cliff is about above sea-level. Gold Down is the most western part of this cliff face. Wagon Rock is a large boulder that has fallen from the upper parts of Gad Cliff onto the shoreline below.

Geology

The geology of the Isle of Purbeck is very complex and this is shown very clearly along this stretch of coast. The extreme angular layers of rock visibly demonstrate the complex sedimentary

folding Fold, folding or foldable may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure * Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot *Abov ...

that affected this area. The foldings, known as the

Purbeck Monocline The Purbeck Monocline is a geological fold in southern England. The term 'fold' is used in geology when one or more originally flat sedimentary strata surfaces are bent or curved as a result of plastic (i.e. permanent) deformation. A monocline is ...

, took place some 30 million years ago and were caused by the tectonic pressures as the African and European continents collided. During this period, the sediments were twisted horizontally, this is why the younger Cretaceous formations are found at the rear of

Worbarrow Bay Worbarrow Bay is a large broad and shallow bay just to the east of Lulworth Cove on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England. Location Worbarrow Bay is located about six kilometres south of Wareham and about 16 kilometres west of Swanage. At the ...

. At Gad Cliff the sediments dip inland at an angle of 25 to 35 degrees. At the top of the cliffs it is clearly visible that the rocks have been folded into a huge S shaped kink as the result of earth movements. The uppermost of Gad Cliff is formed by the

Purbeck Beds The Purbeck Group is an Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) in south-east England. The name is derived from the district known as the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset where the strata are exposed in ...

, 147 million, and of

Portland limestone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

s, 150 million years old. These lie over a layer of Portland Sands and the underlying

Kimmeridge Clay The Kimmeridge Clay is a sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Late Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous age and occurs in southern and eastern England and in the North Sea. This rock formation is the major source rock for North ...

, which is about 155 million years old. The upper layer of the Kimmeridge Clay belongs the Kimmeridgian Stage '' sensu anglico''. Due to the fact that harder Limestones and Sandstones are underlain by an unstable Clay, the cliff face is prone to landslides. At the very western end of Gad Cliff is

, which forms the southern bastion enclosing Worbarrow Bay, which is cut into the comparatively soft clays and sands of the

Wealden Beds The Wealden Group, occasionally also referred to as the Wealden Supergroup, is a group (a sequence of rock strata) in the lithostratigraphy of southern England. The Wealden group consists of paralic to continental (freshwater) facies sedimenta ...

References

{{Jurassic Coast Isle of Purbeck Jurassic Coast Landforms of Dorset Cliffs of England