Spyway is an isolated property in the parish of

Worth Matravers Worth Matravers () is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the England, English county of Dorset. The village is situated on the cliffs west of Swanage. It comprises limestone cottages and farm houses and is built around a pon ...

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 ...

and is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. It is located on the route of the Priest's Way. It is notable for having 140 million-year old dinosaur footprints.

Dinosaur footprints

The footprints were made by

sauropods Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

140 million years ago. They were discovered by quarrymen Kevin Keates and Trev Haysom in 1997. There are over 100 prints, which suggests that it was the location of a watering hole. The National Trust opened Spyway to the public in 2016.

Other features

Spyway Barn, a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

early 19th-century barn, which was acquired by the National Trust in the 1990s, is used as a display room. The name Spyway refers to the smuggling activities that used to take place at this location, and Spyway Barn was used to store smuggled goods. The National Trust also own an adjacent cottage, Spyway Cottage, which is available for holiday rentals.

References

{{coord , 50.602217, -2.0201701, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Dinosaur trace fossils National Trust properties in Dorset Archaeological sites in Dorset History of Dorset Isle of Purbeck