Hengistbury Head - Christchurch, Dorset, UK
Posted by: Dragontree
N 50° 42.962 W 001° 45.649
30U E 587481 N 5618979
A view over the bay from Hengistbury Head in Christchurch, Dorset.
Waymark Code: WM4TBG
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/27/2008
Views: 22
We searched for the perfect spot to take a picture on Hengistbury Head whilst geocaching in the area. The point where we took the picture from was right on top of this headland, just before the trig point.
Hengistbury Head is a popular nature reserve with sandy heathland providing a coastline habitat for many birds and animals. There is a good, smooth path right to the top but many smaller designated paths winding their way around the headland aswell. The headland divides Poole and Christchurch Bays between Poole Harbour and Hurst Spit.
The website describes this important site: visit link
'During the very early part of the 20th century the western end of this area was used as an airfield. Since then it has been used variously as a wartime radar station and also suffered the ignominity of being a rubbish dump. Luckily today, this beautiful place is a very carefully managed recreational area.
The initial formation of Hengistbury Head dates back approximately 60 million years although newer alluvial-based deposits have been laid down as well and the later of these date back less than 10,000 years. Until comparatively recent geological time Hengistbury Head was several kilometres inland.'