Swanage: the Great Globe at Durlston Country Park

A major late Victorian tourist attraction

Two Swanage quarrymen and builders, John Mowlem and his nephew George Burt, made their fortune from Purbeck and Portland stone. It was George Burt who gave the town 280 acres of coastal land on which he had constructed Durlston Castle (visible at rear) and this 40 ton globe of Portland stone. The globe is ten feet in diameter.

The map carved into the globe (completed in about 1890) is interesting; for instance, Sudan seems to occupy almost the entirety of Northern Africa.

Durlston Castle, a large restaurant disguised as a folly, was recently restored and refurbished at considerable expense. It still includes a restaurant, but also has a visitor centre, cinema and other facilities. Well worth a visit.

In the 1890s Durlston Castle was used by Marconi for his early experiments in wireless transmissions from the Castle to the Isle of Wight.


The fact that Portland stone was used does not necessarily mean that it was quarried on the Isle of Portland - as one of the lower Jurassic beds it is plentiful in Purbeck as well.