East & West Man Walk, Dorset

One of my absolute favorite things about being an expat in England is the weather.

Haven’t heard that one before?

Yeah, probably not. But I’ll take a bit of rain any day in place of polar vortexes. And even better – England’s mild weather means that I can go outside every time of year. At home in Michigan, I severely suffer from Vitamin D withdrawal from October until May. Whereas in English winters, I go running every evening and enjoy lots of coastal walks through the depths of January (see here, here, and here).

So with our particularly mild December, I managed to get out for a nice long country walk in Dorset last week – to East Man and West Man.

Worth Matravers

The walk starts off in the little village of Worth Matravers. Park your car in the car park and make your way through the village (we stopped off in the village hall for the craft fair!) toward the southwest coastal path. The Sat Nav code for Worth Matravers is: BH19 3LE.


West Man

We started off with the West Man walk… through a muddy path to the rocky cliff face overlooking the sea!


You’ll notice huge open cliff faces, stacked bricks, and weird perfectly square-shaped caves – this is because it’s a rock quarry! A lot of the stones used to build homes in Worth Matravers were sourced from these cliffs years ago.

It’s also popular among rock climbers, as you can see why…

My favorite view though, was out to the blue sea…

Actually, take that back, it was defo the puppies.

Trust me to befriend the random rock-climbers’ dogs.
East Man

From West Man we took a small trail up the steep hill to East Man! This area of the walk is much more open and field-like. It’s crazy how fast the geography changes! Whereas West Man is really more of a stop-off to enjoy the crazy caves and views, East Man will get your heart pumping.

At the top, the views toward wee Worth Matravers were lovely.

And over my other shoulder, the sea was gorgeous as well…best of both worlds?

It was a gorgeous walk, a welcome gulp of fresh air, and a beautiful example of why I love British winters. However I was still happy to go back inside as there was a crackling fireplace waiting…

Sarah xx

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